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business & economy
Also in this section: Business & Economy Briefs Impressive economic growth in first quarter The Comptroller General's office reports that in the first quarter of 2006 the Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual rate of 7.9 percent, as compared to 6.4 percent in the same quarter of 2005. The first quarter is peak tourism season, so the economy ordinarily tends to run hotter in those months than the rest of the year. But this year's spurt was was led by construction, an increase in the passage of Chinese-made goods through the Panama Canal and the Colon Free Zone and the telecommunications sectors rather than by tourism, the government says.
Unemployment down The Comptroller General reports that in the first quarter of 2006 unemployment was at 8.9 percent, which would be the lowest level in many years. Economists generally agree that the way that the government counts unemployment understates the problem by several percentage points, but even so it seems that unemployment is down. According to official figures unemployment at the end of 2005 was 9.8 percent.
Much of RP economy informal A report prepared for the Inter-American Development Bank says that most Panamanian businesses exist at least partly in the underground economy. The study released by the Instituto Libertad y Democracia said that 87.5 percent of all Panamanian businesses are not legally constituted and thus lack access to credit, the ability to export and in many cases much of relationship with businesses in the formal sector.
US names businesses as drug fronts The US government has fingered five Panamanian companies, Kattus II Corporation, Rixford Investment Corporation, Cipe Investment Corporation, Elizabeth Overseas Inc. and Karen Overseas Inc., as money laundering fronts for a Colombian drug cartel. According to a report in El Panama America, former Foreign Minister José Miguel Alemán, the Mireya Moscoso's chosen Arnulfista presidential candidate in 2004, set up three of these companies.
Denials, excuses, discrepancies about med shortages Our public health system, partly run by the Ministry of Health and partly by the Social Security Fund, as well has private pharmacies, are running short of or completely out of a number of medications that patients need and there's some circular finger-pointing going on about it. RPC-TV reported that mental patients at the Ministry of Health's clinics haven't been able to get their prescribed medications for some three months, and that the ministry apologized by blamed the problem on pharmaceutical suppliers. People with certain dermatology complaints haven't been able to find the prescription lotions they need to control the problem at pharmacies anywhere in the country. Patients at Seguro Social clinics say they can't get some of their meds. Seguro director René Luciani told La Estrella that the complaint is unfounded, that four of every five prescription medicines are available. So what's it all about? It appears that the certifications for many medicines in common usage have expired and health authorities are taking their time about renewing the authorizations, so the importation of these items is banned by the same government that's prescribing them at its health care facilities.
Corredor Norte tolls up On June 17 PYCSA, a company run by the notorious Mexican-Panamanian developer Máximo Haddad, raised tolls at several of the Corredor Norte toll gates. The government, with which Haddad/PYCSA has several contracts which are in default (in fact, even if not having been officially declared so), was advised more than one month earlier about the increases, but chose not to share this knowledge with the public. The tolls charged at the Martin Sosa, Ascanio Villalaz and Tinajitas toll gates were hiked a quarter each, while those at the other toll gates remained the same.
Certain child labor to be punished President Torrijos has signed an executive decree that provides fines of between $50 and $500 for the employment of minors in dangerous jobs. Minors under 18 already couldn't be legally employed to work on underground or upper-story construction jobs, river or marine transportation, and several other hazardous occupations. The decree provides automatic fines for violating those bans.
RP-Honduran free trade On June 14 in Tegucigalpa negotiators for Panama and Honduras began a second round of talks aimed at a free trade pact between their two countries. Details of the talk have not been announced. Panama and Honduras have agricultural sectors that produced mostly the same things, but outside of that the rest of the Honduran economy has a maquiladora manufacturing sector that Panama lacks while this country has a well developed service sector that doesn't exist in Honduras.
Developers to grab Panama Bay? La Prensa reports that one of the options that the Ministry of Public Works is considering "to relieve congestion on Avenida Balboa" is the extension of Corredor Sur causeway from its current end near ATLAPA to El Chorrillo. That would, of course, put a barrier between Punta Paitilla and the Casco Viejo and the sea, and conveniently create an enclosed part of Panama Bay in which material dug or dredged up in a canal expansion project might be dumped so as to create new landfills upon which developers might build. It would also tend to ruin some people's waterfront views and keep the sewage-laden waters of the Matasnillo River closer to shore for the enjoyment of Paitilla residents. The operators of the Corredor Sur, the Mexican ICA construction consortium, received as part that deal the former Paitilla Airport, which has been developed into an upscale commercial and residential area. There is no word on who, if anybody, would get the rights to fill in the areas that would be enclosed by an extended causeway. However, those would surely become coveted properties.
Trilingual education coming to the comarcas The Ministry of Education plans to teach children in all of the 554 public schools in Panama's indigenous comarcas three languages starting in 2009, El Panama America reports. The policy will also be applied in some urban schools serving mainly indigenous kids. The students will be taught in the ethnic tongues spoken in their homes and communities and in Spanish, and will also take English classes. About 12 percent of Panamanians are speakers of indigenous languages, which include Kuna, Ngobere, Buglere, Embera, Wounaana, Naso and Bribri. All but two of these languages are of the Chibchan family, which traces roots back to the Colombian central highlands, the exceptions being Embera and Wounaan, which are of the Chocoan family, whose roots go back to the Pacific coastal lowlands of Colombia and before that to the Amazon basin. Bilingual education has long been a demand of Panama's indigenous communities and is now government policy, but its implementation has been hampered by the lack of teachers who speak the languages of Panama's aboriginal nations.
Gambling up The Comptroller General reports that in the first four months of 2006 people bet $182.443 million at this country's casinos, or some 31.9 percent more than the same period in 2005.
Counterfeit cold remedy Those Panadol Multisitomas pills you are taking for your cold may not be the real thing. The Consumer Protection and Free Trade Protection Authority has seized a bunch of illegal knock-offs of that over-the-counter medication lately. Whether the crime is one of trademark infringement by selling a generic equivalent to the cold remedy while stealing the brand name or something dangerously worse will be determined by lab tests whose results have not been released.
Electric shutoff prompts Colon street protest On June 12 the Elektra Noreste power company shut off the lights in a tenement on Calle 3ra and Justo Arosemena in Colon, and the 28 families who were left without electricity responded by taking to the main drag in town, Avenida Central, by setting up barricades and blocking traffic. The barricades stayed up for about three hours.
Lew Rodin dies Lew Rodin, who survived a Nazi concentration camp to become one of Panama's top businessmen, has died. Rodin, who was liberated from captivity toward the end of World War II by Soviet troops, came to Panama and engaged in the jewelry and real estate businesses before making his big fortune by marketing Soviet-made Lada cars in Panama and the rest of Latin America. To accommodate his car business Rodin, with American partner Stevedoring Services of America, developed Manzanillo International Terminal in Colon, which is now one of Latin America's biggest and most efficient seaports. His final years found him in failing health and embroiled in a series of bitter business disputes, some of them within his family.
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