The Public Utilities Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) has tentatively approved and passed on to the president a proposal to raise the nation's electricity rates as of the beginning of next year. The electric companies are asking for 30 to 40 percent, but the board is recommending something on the order of 10 to 15 percent. High world petroleum prices are the stated reason for the increase, but Panama actually generates very little of its electricity with petroleum. However, we do have an energy policy that was essentially written by ENRON during the Moscoso administration, and it seems that the current government is not changing that very much. For example, the Panama Canal Authority's hydroelectric generating capacity is being taken out of production, something that the private utilities have been demanding for years. This particular proposed increase, however, has other business groups that also have the president's attention warning of grave damage to the national economy. Torrijos can approve the rate hike, reject it or grant a greater or lesser increase than the board recommended.

On December 1 President Torrijos signed the law that will created the International Maritime University of Panama (UMIP, by its Spanish initials), which has as its mission the education of people from around Latin America and the Caribbean in the sciences and skills necessary to run modern maritime industries, both on the seas and in ports. The UMIP will start out with an enrollment of 350, holding classes at the Escuela Nautica. Set up with assistance from Texas A&M University, UMIP will be in part funded by a percentage from the sale of every Panamanian mariner's certificate. Its governing board will include representatives from the City of Knowledge administration, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Shipping, the Maritime Law Association and the Panamanians Ship Officers Association.

It's reported in various media that Continental Airlines would like to sell some of its 49 pecent stake in COPA Airlines in order to raise money for other things, and El Panama America reports that this will be done by taking the company public on both US and Panamanian security exchanges. Members of the Motta family still control COPA and will continue to do so, but registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission implies (as similar action with the Comision Nacional de Valores de Panama only very theoretically does) that minority shareholders will enjoy rights and protections that are unusual in the Panamanian business culture. Meanwhile COPA continues to grow, having recently signed agreements that will increase its flights to and from Canada.

Panama and Singapore are tentatively set to sign a free trade pact in late January, soon after the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. The date was set in part so that the final agreement will be consonant with whatever trade rules are decided at the WTO summit.

It's a purge that will probably cost the “winners” more than those who were ousted. The militant National Confederation of Union Unity (CONUSI) has been expelled from the non-militant National Council of Organized Workers (CONATO). CONATO still counts among its number the large but obsequious FENASEP government workers union and a few other organizations that actually represent employees at this or that business, but by and large it remains a collection of small and ineffective company unions. At the heart of CONUSI is the large and militant SUNTRACS construction workers' union, whose secretary general Genaro López has emerged as Panama's best known and most popular labor leader. It had been the Torrijos administration's intention to use the Seguro Social dialogue point to the mostly PRD-leaning CONATO as the “responsible labor leadership” that can deliver positive results for working people. However, it seems that the results of the dialogue will be seen as a blow to their interests by most of Panama's workers and CONATO's reputation will not be enhanced. About 10 percent of Panamanian employees belong to a union, with SUNTRACS and organizations representing the banana workers and the Coca-Cola bottlers being the most important collective bargaining agents in the private sector.

The Bocas Fruit Company, a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands, has shut down 18 banana packing plants after unionized workers there refused to accept a change in packaging methods by which the fruit will be put into plastic bags within the boxes. As these briefs were written the lockout had lasted six days and banana workers in the fields were threatening to go on strike.

The Free Trade and Consumer Affairs Commission (CLICAC) reports that the price of Christmas dinner will be higher this year than last. Based on CLICAC's report and its own investigations in various stores, La Prensa reports that hams are up 9.3 percent , chicken's up about 3 percent, canned vegetables are up 82.3 percent, eggnog's up 9 percent, dried fruit is up 25.1 percent and capers up 173 percent. The daily reports imported turkey prices down slightly and the woven rosca bread down 4.2 percent. All the comparisons are between the beginning of December this year and the same date last year.

The Gimnasio Roberto Duran in Juan Diaz, once the scene of many world championship boxing matches by lately eclipsed as a pugilistic venue, will get a $6 million upgrade and a private manager, according to the National Institute of Sports (INDE). The Institute's director, Ramón Cardoze, told El Panama America that the transformation will take about 12 months.

The Ministry of Agricultural Development has approved a $100,000 subsidy to help create a juice processing plant in Cocle province. The government is promoting plans to reforest lands in the Panama Canal's Western Watershed and elsewhere with fruit trees, and in free trade talks with the United States seeking access to the American market for Panamanian juice concentrates. Panama's juice production industry, dominated by Estrella Azul and Bonlac, is so poorly developed that it's hard to buy Panamanian orange juice here --- what one generally finds are sugared drinks advertised as orange juice. In more modern orange juice concentrate industries, sweet and tart varieties are mixed to produce a good flavor of pure orange juice. Panama's fresh citrus fruit is not allowed into the United States because we have Mediterranean fruit flies here.

In recent days there have been a number of protests, some of which have involved roadblocks, in communities along Colon's Costa Arriba (the coast east of the canal) and Costa Abajo (that part of the province west of the canal). The reason is recent bus fare hikes, which have been in the range of 25 to 45 percent. The great majority of coastal Colon residents depend on public transportation.

An interdepartmental government committee, working under the auspices of the National Maritime Authority, has drafted proposed regulations on whale watching tourism. The proposed regulations can be found on the authority's website at http://www.amp.gob.pa, and people can submit comments on them by email at drmarinos@amp.gob.pa or avistamientopanama@yahoo.com, through December 14.

The waters of the Gulf of Parita off Cocle province are notoriously overfished, and it has led not only to poverty and misery in the fishing villages along its beaches but also to problems for supermarkets, restaurants and the local tourism industry. Now, however, La Prensa reports that the government of Taiwan is helping out by creating a series of PVC frames that are being sunk into the gulf, upon which corals will grow and thus create shelters where fish will breed and feed. It's a well known fisheries technology in which Portugal is the world leader, but at which Panama has until now lagged behind.

The National Assembly is considering a proposed law to ban the importation of used motor vehicles with more than three years of use in their country of origin. It seems that the law is to apply to sellers of used vehicles rather than someone who moves here from abroad and wants to bring his or her five-year-old car to use.

The Supreme Court has upheld a $100,000 fine imposed on Arthur Anderson, SA, the Panamanian affiliate of the US accounting firm that was disgraced and disappeared for its role in the ENRON affair. What Andersen did here was similar, though on a smaller scale. They cooked the books of Financiera El Roble, part of the collapsed Grupo ADELAG conglomerate, to hide the company's precarious condition from shareholders and creditors.

Never mind about restoration work, historical markers or removing dead or dying trees. Most of the year the grass doesn't get cut at the historic Fort San Lorenzo, and the road out to the site is almost impassable at times. That's a national embarrassment because the old Spanish fort and prison is on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites. Thus, according to a report in La Prensa, the National Institute of Culture (INAC) is considering the creation of a foundation to manage the site. The report adds that a similar move is being considered with respect to the colonial-era fortifications at Portobelo.

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