In September 2017, the opening ceremony of the Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá (Panama) was jointly witnessed by Juan Carlos Varela, then president of Panama, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In February 2018, BISU signed an execution agreement with Universidad de Panamá on joint building the Confucius Institute. On June 16, 2018, the Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá held the opening ceremony of the center for Chinese studies.

The Confucius Institute covers an area of 700 square meters, including three classrooms, two offices, one office for the secretariat, one reception hall and one multiple-function hall. In 2020, the Confucius Institute applied to establish the Confucius classroom of Panama international culture school. Within one year of enrollment, the Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá has fully covered all public universities and some primary and secondary schools in Panama. In 2019, the Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá had 1,000 students, 12 teaching sites and 12 teachers. Currently, it has two full-time Chinese teachers, two local teachers and three voluntary teachers. So far, it has trained 5,319 students and currently has 1,000 students.

The Confucius Institute launched “Chinese+” programs based on students’ needs, such as “Chinese + banking” and “Chinese + company management”. The Confucius Institute has also created new teaching methods, launching the immersive teaching program. It was pioneering in the Latin American region and reported on by the People’s Daily, the Panama national television station and other Chinese and Panamanian medias.

The Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá has established many performance teams, including the dragon and lion dance team, the rope skipping team, the Kung Fu and Tai Chi team, and the dragon boat team. The Chinese and Panamanian mainstream media, such as the Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily, CCTV, the Panama national television station and the Telemetro TV Station, Panama have reported on the various teaching and cultural activities of the Confucius Institute at Universidad de Panamá. In December 2019, it was awarded the honorary title of “Global Outstanding Confucius Institute”.