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The Fitch bond rating company has upgraded Panama’s risk rating from “BB+ negative” to “BB+ stable.” Credit Suisse - First Boston analyst Jan Dehn expects that when all is said and done, Panama’s economy will have grown 3 percent this year. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is just a bit rosier than Dehn. Surely tourism has picked up for the centennial, there has been a construction boom spurred by tax law changes that will scale back breaks available now for construction that begins next year, activity is up at the Colon Free Zone and the government is on a spending binge. Critics may say that it’s mainly a matter of Panama maxing out its credit, but clearly Panama’s long recession bottomed out about the middle of 2002. And yet there is no evidence of unemployment having come down to any significant extent. Business leaders such as APEDE’s John Bennett concur with labor leaders’ predictions that the employment situation is unlikely to improve much next year, either. It seems that we are seeing a modest recovery after several years of deep economic crisis, and that the numbers are being somewhat skewed by election year spending that should last through next April.

Never mind that she recently called in the nation’s religious leaders to swear that she wouldn’t privatize Social Security. President Moscoso has issued a decree giving the Social Security wide discretion to hire private brokers to invest Social Security Fund (CSS) money in a wide variety of private or public investments. Mireyista presidential candidate José Miguel Alemán calls it an “intelligent” move, but all of the other three candidates have criticized the possibilities for abuse that the decree creates, and Guillermo Endara says that it appears that Mireya’s pledge to the Ecumenical Council was bogus. The labor and leftist coalition that has called strikes and protests over the Seguro Social issue was more blunt about it: “Mireya lied,” said Guillermo Puga, one of the labor representatives on the CSS board.

Estelabel Piad, the Director General of Revenues at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told El Panama America that the government is considering the elimination of some $126 million in old tax debts. Some of these debts are uncollectable, mostly as a practical matter but some because statutes of limitations have run their course.

It’s not really a big ship. It’s a 50-foot aluminum hulled launch, and it’s being built in the Panama Canal Authority’s Industrial Shipyard Division. The vessel, powered by twin Deutz 653 horsepower motors, will be used to transport linehandlers to and from ships. The canal organization has never built such a thing before. “We take every opportunity to educate and transfer skills to our employees --- we want them to be the most skillful and efficient in the world,” Industrial Services director Manuel Benítez said.

The Salvadoran Union de Bancos Cuscatlan has announced that is acquiring Lloyds TSB assets in Panama, Honduras and Guatemala. By that move, Cuscatlan will overtake Banistmo as the region’s largest banking empire.

President Moscoso has nominated Public Works Minister Eduardo Quirós and Minister of Economy and Finance Norberto Delgado to the Panama Canal Authority to replace PRD businessman/Israeli consul Moisés Mizrachi and media magnate/Toro business partner Emmanuel González Revilla as members of the Panama Canal Commission. As expected, PRD presidential candidate Martín Torrijos has criticized the appointees as unqualified to sit on the board that runs Panama’s principal industrial asset. Also nominated to the Public Utilities Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) were former Public Works Minister Víctor Juliao and former Vice-Minister of Commerce and Industry Melitón Arrocha to the Free Trade and Consumer Affairs Commission (CLICAC). The legislature is likely to approve the nominations, which will leave these Mireyistas among the few members of their faction with government jobs this time next year.

A labor tribunal judge has ordered the sequestering of up to one million dollars of assets in the accounts of Marc Harris, SA; The Marc M. Harris Trust Company, Ltd; and the Grupo de Apoyo Administrativo. So was it a victory for the unpaid workers? No way. The accounts of those companies are empty, and the judge refused to freeze assets in the accounts of the rest of the Marc Harris paper maze. It seems, moreover, that Harris, who is in jail in Miami awaiting sentencing on tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy charges, moved a lot of his money out of Panama when he fled to Nicaragua, from whence he was expelled to the United States.

Why are all the leaves in those stands of teak in Cocle, and now Panama Oeste, getting brown and blotchy? It’s teak rust, a parasitic fungus that is particularly destructive to younger trees. In retrospect, the notion that the way to get rich in Panama is by planting vast stands of teak on deforested land appears to be really dumb. But environmentalists and agroforestry experts have been warning against monoculture forestry for many years now, so there may be some public opposition when the teak investors go to the government looking for public funds to bail them out of their problems.

Rain is necessary for crops to grow, but too much of it can cause certain crops to rot in the fields. We have been having heavier rains than usual at the end of this rainy season, and there are now reports coming in of losses to tomato, watermelon, cantaloupe, onion, celery, squash and rice crops, especially in the central provinces.

Citing ample supplies of hams and picnic hams available from Panama’s pig farmers, the Ministry of Agricultural Development has imposed restrictions on ham imports for the holidays. Not coincidentally, the nation’s ham producers have announced that since their raw material costs are going up, so will prices for consumers.

On December 2 heavy rains brought a hillside and the trees growing upon it sliding down onto the Pan-American Highway in Arraijan. The entire eastbound side was covered in mud, rocks and trees and part of the westbound side of the road was also blocked by the trees. One driver whose car was engulfed in the slide was injured, and two traffic cops were hurt when they were hit by cars trying to direct traffic. That section of the nation’s main traffic artery was paralyzed for more than four hours, and partly obstructed for more than a day.



Also in this section:
Business & Economy Briefs
Casino privatization challenged
The Panama News readership continues to grow

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