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business & economy
Also in this section: Business & Economy Briefs
Retirees continue Transistmica blockade The daytime blockade of the Trans-Isthmian Highway by a few dozen retirees seeking a $30 per month raise in the minimum retirement pension is going into its third week without any attempt by police to break it up. The government, which initially said that it had no money for raises, is now offering $10 per month. The protests, combined with slowdowns associated with Transito Police inspections of buses, have caused traffic chaos all over the capital. The Torrijos administration, which wants to replace the owner-operated bus system with bus lines owned by large corporations, is blaming the bus drivers for the traffic crisis and thus finding the unrelated protests politically convenient. The retirees, meanwhile, are threatening to protest nude in front of the Palacio de las Garzas if the Torrijos administration doesn't cede to their demands.
Panama's economy up According to the Comptroller General's figures, Panama's economy grew 8.1 percent in real terms during the first half of 2006. The leading sectors were the export of services (calling centers, shipping, financial services) and construction. The economies of our neighbors in South America are all up as well, but Panama seems to be doing better than most of them.
Poverty down in Panama, region According to figures from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), the economy throughout the region is doing better this year and Panama is sharing in the more prosperous times. Extreme poverty --- living on less than $1 per day --- is down an estimated 16 percent in Panama and down all over the region, but still some six percent of all Latin Americans are that poor. Much of Panama's economy is linked to the fortunes of other countries in the region --- traffic through the Panama Canal, merchandise moving in and out of the Colon Free Zone and the volume of international banking transactions at many Panama City banks are noteworthy cases in point --- so our economy tends to rise and fall along with trends in northern South America especially.
$30 million to pave the road to Yaviza The government plans to spend some $30 million on the Pan-American Highway in the Darien when the dry season starts, most of it to pave the road between Meteti and Yaviza. The hoped-for result will be an all-weather road all the way to the Chucunaque River, where the highway ends and the Darien Gap between Panamanian and Colombian roads begins. Colombia and international lenders have been urging Panama to pierce the gap with a connecting highway, but a de facto alliance of indigenous groups, cattle ranchers, environmentalists and people concerned about the intrusion of armed Colombians has effectively blocked any serious consideration of that by successive Panamanian governments, including the Torrijos administration. The government also plans to make improvements to the docks at Puerto Quimba and La Palma, which are major terminals for the Darien's principal travel arteries, the Tuira and Chucunaque rivers and their tributaries.
Free trade with USA not on lame duck agenda The Bush administration won't be trying to reach a quick deal with Panama and jam its ratification through the lame duck Republican-controlled US Congress. The Democrats who will be taking control on Capitol Hill in January have warned that they have different ideas about trade policy and may demand changes in an agreement with Colombia that will come before the new Congress, and meanwhile the wave of post-election resignations and transfers leaves the United States without a negotiating team for the talks with Panama. It would thus seem likely that it would be several months into 2007 before any US-RP free trade deal will be closed. If agreement is reached, however, then it is not expected that it would be as controversial as CAFTA or a deal with Colombia because we are a smaller economy that doesn't much affect the United States and we don't have government backed death squads killing labor leaders like Colombia does. But if and when free trade with Panama becomes an issue in American politics, the matter of Panamanian corruption is likely to be raised in the halls of Congress.
Canal contract transparency report kept secret We have just seen a long campaign in which "transparency" was used as a meaningless buzzword, and now the point has been emphasized by President Torrijos and the committee on transparency in canal expansion contracting that he appointed. The committee's report has been made, but not released to the press or to the public. The committee's president, Partido Popular leader and Second Vice President Rubén Arosemena, is renowned for steering contracts to friends and fellow members as head of the Panama Maritime Authority.
Government to eliminate paychecks The Torrijos administration hopes to save some $4 million per year with a new method of payment for public employees that will begin next year. There will no longer be paychecks, but instead government workers will be paid in the form of direct deposit in bank accounts or by debit card. This will no doubt be no fun for teachers and other government workers in places like Darien province, but may prove more convenient for public servants in the capital.
Employers may (or may not) get access to records Employers may soon get access to job applicants' police records again --- but maybe not. Recall that under the Moscoso administration they passed a law to block public access to individuals' police records, and that since then there have been some particularly gruesome crimes committed by people who got jobs that gave them the opportunity to do their special heinous deeds because their employers didn't know about their long histories of violent crimes. The proposal to simply repeal that law met with objections from the Catholic Church, which thinks public access to criminal records makes it hard for former criminals to reform their lives by getting honest jobs. The National Assembly's Government Committee then amended the proposal to restrict access to the people whose records they are or to a narrow class of "authorized persons" and to only include crimes committed in the previous five years. Now Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez is unhappy with the amended law, but the committee approved it anyway. The full legislature has to approve it on separate votes before it can be sent to the president for his signature or veto.
University of Panama's woes show in statistics According to Torrijos administration, the National Assembly, most of the tenured faculty and the campus radical groups, everything is fine with a University of Panama headed by a rector with a fake doctorate who signs diplomas for people who haven't taken the courses needed to graduate. But meanwhile, El Panama America reports that six of every 10 University of Panama graduates are unemployed, and admissions to the school are down some 50 percent, despite a growing population of recent high school graduates.
Drug-related rental properties returned What happens to those who unknowingly rent property to a drug cartel? In the case of Panamanian rental properties seized in the international sweep against the alleged Rayo Montaño drug gang, the owners lose a few months worth of rent but get their real estate back. Prosecutors have returned a number of business premises and apartments that were seized in the raids several months back to their owners after no evidence was found to indicate that the owners participated in or knew of any of the alleged illegal activities.
Lee is best paid baseball player Panamanian slugger Carlos Lee may not have been a serious contender for most valuable player, but he's an all-star who was a free agent and his new six-year $100 million contract with the Houston Astros makes him the best paid player in Major League Baseball.
Flour seized, destroyed The importer said his papers were in order but the government disagreed. On November 21 agricultural quarantine officers seized 487 sacks of wheat flour from Neptuno Overseas because they said that the proper sanitary certifications were not obtained and the material lacked the legally required vitamin fortifications. After lab tests that allegedly indicated that the flour did not meet national standards, the shipment was burned at the Cerro Patacon dump.
Figali's litigation getting tiresome? Politically connected businessman Jean Figali, who earlier gave the Supreme Court a black eye when it gratuitously voided his debt to the government for the land on which the Figali Convention Center was built, may not be so lucky this time. He's building a marina next to the convention center, sans permit from the National Maritime Authority, and defying that government agency's order for him to cease, desist and remove the landfill he has created. He has also filed a criminal complaint against officials with the now defunct Interoceanic Regional Authority, claiming that they abused their authority in their disputes over the land he occupies at the former Fort Amador. But the prosecutors have refused to act on his complaint and it seems that his marina project will be headed to court. Figali has also been engaged in protracted litigation with the construction companies that built the unfinished Figali Convention Center, he claiming that they did inferior work, they claiming that he didn't pay them as agreed.
Highway closed over water complaint On November 28 --- not a very disruptive time for a protest because it was a holiday --- people from Tocumen's Dos Rios neighborhood blocked the Pan-American Highway. It's part of our national political culture that people tend to get that way after their water has been off for five days, as was the case in this neighborhood. The problem was that when the new Linea de Oriente master water main was installed the IDAAN water and sewer utility judged the pipes to Dos Rios substandard and didn't connect them. After the protest a temporary connection was installed. Substandard water lines are not a minor problem, as IDAAN loses much of the water it purifies through leaky pipes.
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