The “canasta basica,” an official measure of the cost of living by way of the price of a collection of basic household staples, has risen suddenly and sharply. Shoppers have experienced a record $5.82 increase in one month to $187.23, and fingers are being pointed in several directions. Economy and Finance Minister Ricaurte Vásquez told El Panama America that it’s a matter of businesses using the recent tax increase as an excuse to raise prices. However, this is denied by the grocers’ industry association ACOVIPA and some economic analysts, who say that the price increases are primarily due to the effects of high fuel prices.

Panama maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which means that the Peoples Republic of China won’t allow normal intergovernmental relations between itself and Panama. Yet this country’s economic ties with mainland China are very strong and growing and the Panama Canal is a crucial link in the growing Chinese trade with South America. This reality is acknowledged in the presence of Captain Wei Jiafu, the representative of the mostly state-owned China Overseas Shipping Corporation (COSCO) on the Panama Canal Authority’s (ACP’s) international advisory board. From February 20 through 23 the ACP hosted the Panama Maritime VII Conference, and at the event Captain Wei took the occasion to opine that "in recent years, the fast growth on international trade has resulted in a fast growth in the cargo volume crossing the canal, but the canal is not capable to fulfill the increasing demand.” Thus, he concluded, from COSCO’s point of view, “in order to maintain its competitiveness, the canal must be expanded." A canal expansion plan is expected to be presented to the Panamanian voters for approval or rejection in a referendum sometime late this year, but the ACP has yet to disclose what that plan might be.

Against the protests of environmentalists and historic preservationists, the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) has approved the environmental impact statement of Inmobiliaria P&P for a 136-house residential development in a forested area of the former Fort Clayton, through which the Spanish colonial Las Cruces Trail runs. A coalition of environmentalist groups vows to challenge the decision in the courts, and there remains the question of whether Panama City’s Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro will grant the municipal permits that the developer would need to legally proceed.

The Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), which was set up to manage and dispose of the assets that Panama acquired through the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties and which will end its institutional existence at the end of this year, has transferred a big chunk of real estate to the National Environmental Authority (ANAM). Title to more than 9,000 hectares of mostly forested --- generally second growth --- was transferred from the one public entity to the other, and ANAM says that the land will be added to the nation’s park system.

Starting on April 10, non-traditional Panamanian agricultural products that Europe doesn’t produce will get into the European Union countries duty-free. The big winners in this European policy change will be this country’s melon and pineapple growers.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is building a sea turtle display at its Punta Culebra Marine Exhibition Center on the Amador Causeway, and in the process it’s boosting better forestry practices in Panama. It’s using teak and cedro amarillo certified by the Forest Sustainability Council (FSC) and produced in eastern Chiriqui province by Futuro Forestal, a company that’s part of the regional Jagwood + network that’s dedicated to sound environmental practices. This transaction marks the first sale of FSC-certified wood in Panama. The FSC stamp on lumber enhances its price --- it can cost up to double what the predators who are destroying our natural forests charge for the same species of wood --- so it remains to be seen whether the Panamanian market will follow STRI’s example.

A failed public health care privatization scheme in San Miguelito may give way to management by a public entity. Toward the end of the Pérez Balladares administration Hospital San Miguel Arcangel was created to be run by a quasi-private foundation theoretically controlled by the Ministry of Health but actually run by private medical practices contracted to run the various departments, clinics and wards at the facility. During the Moscoso administration the hospital was turned into a political patronage piñata and as a business proposition the facility has been awash in red ink. Now, according to a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), talks are underway between the Ministry of Health and the University of Panama, with an eye toward turning the hospital’s management over to the university.

Panama’s international airline COPA, about half of which is owned by members of the Motta family and the other half by Continental Airlines, has continued its expansion by acquiring Colombia’s AeroRepublica. The deal is described as a “strategic alliance, but COPA has taken over AeroRepublica’s management and acquired most of the latter’s shares. There is no word yet on whether the AeroRepublica name will be kept over the long term.

Panama’s fashion scene will take a higher profile on April 12 at the Figali Convention Center, when fashion designer Oscar de la Renta will show off his spring and summer collection and highlight pieces that his company manufactures in this country. The show will be a benefit for the Fundacion San Felipe.

The state-owned IDAAN water and sewer utility has ended a month and one-half nightmare for some 40,000 Panama City households. On January 24 at the Chilibre water treatment plant two water pumps for the lines serving parts of Pueblo Nuevo, Santa Maria, El Dorado and Bethania burned out, and it wasn’t until March 3 that the necessary replacement parts arrived. The parts were installed and now the water is flowing again.

Seguro Social director René Luciani said in La Prensa that once the matter of Seguro Social reforms is done in the legislature, there will be an administrative housecleaning that will be painful for many. “If in 1999 we were giving services similar to the ones now with 17,000 people and now we are doing it with 24,000” he said, “there is a grave inefficiency problem.”

Winston Robles has stepped down as La Prensa’s editorial director. The paper has announced that attorney Fernando Berguido will fill Robles’s spot and that Rafael Carles and attorney Siaska Salcedo will share the number two editorial position. For some months now Robles has been ailing and Carles had been in effect running the paper. The new lineup may be temporary, however, as on March 29 there will be a shareholders’ meeting at which things may change.