Funding worth a total of US$200 million will help with the construction of the new Panama-Colón highway in Panama. A group of banks, Panama''s national bank BNP, Brazilian development bank BNDES, and private banks BNP Paribas and Citigroup, are making to syndicated loan reports Business News Americas. Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht has the $216 million build-operate-maintain contract. The highway is due for completion in 2009 and will provide an alternative route to the Transístmica highway, which runs parallel to the Panama Canal between Colón and capital Panama City on the southern Pacific coast.