business

As these briefs were uploaded representatives of Panama and the United States were meeting in Washington to see if they could hammer out the details of a free trade agreement. The talks are secret, but in frequent leaks to the press it has been often reported that agricultural issues are the main points of disagreement, and there there are also unresolved issues about American professionals being able to work in Panama and vice-versa and rules affecting the financial sectors. This is the sixth round of bilateral. The United States and the Central American countries have signed a free trade pact, which has not yet been submitted to the US Congress for ratification, while free trade talks between the Americans and the Andean countries appear to have reached an impasse, reportedly over intellectual property issues.

A joint commission composed of representatives from the National Maritime Authority and the Office of Catastre (Dirección de Catastro, which makes and maintains Panama’s official maps and surveys, among other duties) is reviewing land tenure and maritime concessions in the Bocas del Toro archipelago, particularly on Isla Colon. Under past administrations corrupt local and national officials, working with a number of land development companies and law firms, have stripped dozens of families that owned waterfront properties by squatters’ rights of their property, which then for the most part passed into the hands of foreigners. In many of these cases permits to install docks or build houses over the water were granted, allegedly in irregular form and in some cases harming the local coral reefs. No legal actions or other remedies for abuses have yet been announced as the result of this review, notwithstanding that the former mayor of Bocas, Eladio Robinson, is in jail for abuse of authority precisely because of one such eviction.

It would be good news for the salt dryers, but an unwelcome development for the melon growers. The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) warns that the weak El Niño effect now underway is likely to mean a drought in the country’s driest areas, along the Pacific coast in the central provinces and parts of Panama Oeste west of Cerro Campana. Although the air currents have yet to shift --- winds blowing steadily from the north are a salient feature of Panama’s dry season --- we have been getting less rain than usual for early December in Panama City. Ordinarily dry season begins in late December and last until late March or early April.

Catastro, the government office in charge of official land surveys and protecting the boundaries of public lands, has sent in the bulldozers to Coronado, where retaining walls, fences and stairways installed by nine landowners on the public beach are being demolished. Beaches are public property under Panamanian law and neighbors at Coronado had been complaining about the encroachments for several years.

The new director of the Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), Julio Ross Anguizola, has demanded that the Ministry of Economy and finance transfer some $5.4 million to the Fiduciary Fund for Development (FFD) that was set up to receive the proceeds of privatized state assets. That money represents that portion of ARI’s income from the time that the Torrijos administration took office, which was deposited into an account managed by the Comptroller General’s office, then transferred the government’s general fund. Comptroller General Alvin Weeden says that Ross is mistaken to believe that ARI’s proceeds belong to the FFD. If Ross is right, then the general fund owes the FFD at least 72 million in ARI proceeds that were sent to the wrong place during the Moscoso administration and the current government’s budget squeeze is that much tighter.

In a series of arrests beginning on December 1, the National Police arrested a Panamanian, two Venezuelans and six Colombians for a credit card “cloning” operation that defrauded local merchants of at least $30,000 over the previous two weeks. Five fraudulent credit cards were seized from the suspects. Police said that the ring, allegedly led by the Venezuelans, possessed all the equipment needed to falsify credit cards and passports in an apartment on Via España. However, it seems that the credit cards used here were made in other countries. Cloned credit cards are generally made with information obtained from corrupt employees at banks or businesses that accept customers’s credit cards, or by the interception of the inadequately encrypted electronic messages of banks, businesses or people who make online credit card transactions.

Legislators José I. Blandón and Alcibiades Vásquez, both Arnulfistas from Panama City, have proposed a hike in cigarette import duties, starting at 30 percent and gradually increasing to 65 percent by 2008. The measure won’t pass unless it is embraced by the majority PRD caucus, but is part of a growing anti-tobacco concern that crosses party lines. Most adult Panamanians don’t smoke, but the habit is increasingly popular with the youth and public health officials warn that this means trouble down the road. Although a photo of his father puffing on a big cigar was one of the principal campaign symbols in Martín Torrijos’s election campaign, his administration recently declined to continue tax breaks for Panamanian cigar makers and the previous administration’s relaxation of the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants is under review.

Panama City’s Holiday Inn will remain one of Herman Bern’s properties, but in January will change its name to the Crown Plaza. Most likely another Panama City hotel will be built and be called the Holiday Inn, as Bern retains the franchise to use that valuable brand name. In addition to the Holiday Inn, developer Bern owns the Miramar Hotel and the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and is in the process of building a hotel on Kobbe Beach.





Also in this section:
Cooperation, conflict between the US and Panama over cattle issues
Foreign retirees as an engine for Panama's development
Seguro Social changes looming
Business & Economy Briefs

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