Can Panama be a digital hub without digital talent?

Published on September 29, 2026

In short: Panama has seven submarine cables, with TAM-1 landing in 2026, sixteen data centres and 192 multinationals under the SEM regime. What it does not have, according to employers themselves, is people: 65% of companies say they cannot find the talent they need, according to ManpowerGroup 2026, and the “People” pillar is the country’s weakest in the Network Readiness Index, 86th of 133. The Technological University graduates about 670 systems engineers a year, 16% of 15-year-olds reach the basic level in PISA mathematics and the SENACYT budget fell 25% in 2026. The question is whether a country can be a digital hub with a hub’s infrastructure and the training of a country that is not one.

The infrastructure is there

Indicator	Figure	Source
Submarine cables	Seven systems; TAM-1 landed in early 2026 with up to 650 Tbps; MANTA on the way	Panama Maritime Authority
Data centres	16 facilities from six operators	Data Center Map
Regional traffic	Panama handles 100% of regional internet traffic and 90% of data transmission	PROPANAMA
SEM multinationals	192 companies as of May 2026; about 10,000 cumulative jobs, half Panamanian	MICI
ICT Development Index 2025	83 out of 100; Chile 93.4; Costa Rica 86.3; Colombia 77.2	ITU

In connectivity Panama is where it wants to be: above the International Telecommunication Union’s global average and ahead of Colombia. The cables land, the data centres get built and the multinationals open regional headquarters. Dell keeps its only Global Services Command Center in Latin America at Panamá Pacífico.

Key fact: in the 2025 Network Readiness Index Panama ranks 83rd of 133 countries. Its technology pillar is 82nd and its governance pillar 96th, but the people pillar, which measures skills, education and use, is the weakest: 86th. The country has better cables than capabilities.

The talent is not

Indicator	Figure	Source
Employers struggling to fill vacancies	65% in 2026 and in 2024; 55% in 2025	ManpowerGroup
UTP systems engineering graduates	670 in 2025, up from 450 in 2021	Panama Open Data
Total UTP graduates	5,202 in 2025	Panama Open Data
PISA 2022, mathematics	357 points, 74th of 81; only 16% reach level 2 against 69% in the OECD	OECD via La Prensa
PISA 2022, reading	392 points, 59th; Costa Rica 415, Colombia 409	UNESCO, IDB
SENACYT budget	From 83.3 million in 2025 to 61.9 million in 2026, -25.6%; postgraduate scholarships cut by up to 82%	La Prensa
R&D investment	0.13% of GDP, 0.08% without the Smithsonian; 1,614 active researchers	La Prensa
Global Innovation Index 2025	82nd of 139; 51st of 54 among high-income economies	WIPO

The shortage employers report is not a one-off: it repeats in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and the sectors that suffer most are technology, information and finance, precisely the ones the hub model needs. The Technological University has raised its systems graduates by almost 50% in four years, but 670 engineers a year are not enough for 192 multinationals, sixteen data centres and a State that wants to digitise its procedures. Panama does not even appear in the IMD digital competitiveness ranking, which does assess Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

What is being done

In June 2026 the government launched Talent Up Panamá with the IDB and Google Cloud: up to 10,000 scholarships and more than 700 courses in artificial intelligence, data, cloud and cybersecurity, with INADEH as technical secretariat. SENACYT awarded 167 scholarships in 2026 worth 9.6 million and in 2025 opened 300 Coursera licences with the World Bank. These are real programmes, but short ones; the cuts hit master’s and doctoral scholarships, which train the people who design a data centre, not those who operate it.

Pay does not help retention either. A senior programmer earns between 2,600 and 3,250 dollars a month in Panama, according to the aggregator Talently; in Colombia, between 5,000 and 6,000. And a senior developer in Costa Rica working remotely for a foreign company makes about 82,000 dollars a year, according to Deel. The hub competes for talent with the same countries it sells connectivity to.

The underlying question

A submarine cable takes two years to lay. An engineer takes five years to train and fifteen to reach the point of designing systems, and for that they need to have learned mathematics at 15, which in Panama one in six manages. The country has invested in the fast part and cut the slow part. If the digital bet continues like this, Panama will be the place the region’s data passes through and where the companies that process it sit, with teams trained in Bogotá, San José or Medellín. That is not a hub; it is a port.

What nobody has answered yet

How many ICT graduates does Panama produce each year across all universities? Only the UTP publishes open data; INEC does not consolidate an accessible national figure.
How many technology vacancies go unfilled? The 20,000 programmers figure in circulation comes from a private bootcamp; neither CAPATEC nor the Labour Ministry has published its own.
How much SEM technology employment is Panamanian and how much imported? MICI reports 50% Panamanians overall, without a breakdown by sector or job level.

Frequently asked questions

How many submarine cables does Panama have?

Seven systems cross Panamanian waters, according to the Maritime Authority. TAM-1, about 7,000 kilometres long with up to 650 Tbps, landed in early 2026, and MANTA is on the way.

Is there a tech talent shortage in Panama?

65% of employers report difficulty filling vacancies in 2026, according to ManpowerGroup, with technology, information and finance among the most affected sectors. There is no official figure for unfilled vacancies.

How does Panama do in PISA?

In 2022 it scored 357 in mathematics, 74th of 81 countries, and 392 in reading, 59th. Only 16% of students reach the basic level in mathematics.

What is Talent Up Panamá?

A programme launched in June 2026 by the government, the IDB and Google Cloud with up to 10,000 scholarships and more than 700 courses in artificial intelligence, data, cloud and cybersecurity.

Sources

Panama Maritime Authority, submarine cables and TAM-1.
Data Center Map, data centres in Panama.
PROPANAMA, Panama as a data centre hub.
MICI, 192 multinationals under the SEM regime.
ITU, ICT Development Index 2025.
Network Readiness Index, Panama profile 2025.
WIPO, Global Innovation Index 2025, Panama.
IMD, World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2025.
ManpowerGroup, 2026 talent shortage in Panama.
ManpowerGroup, 2025 talent shortage in Panama.
La Prensa, 2024 talent shortage.
Panama Open Data, UTP graduates by faculty 1981-2025.
La Prensa, Panama’s PISA 2022 results.
IDB, Latin America and the Caribbean in PISA 2022.
La Prensa, SENACYT budget cut.
La Prensa, R&D investment and brain drain.
MEF, Talent Up Panamá.
SENACYT, 167 scholarships in 2026.
Talently, programmer salaries in Panama.
IT Now, senior developer salaries in Central America according to Deel.
ADEDAPP, Dell at Panamá Pacífico.

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