business & economy

Also in this section:
World Bank: Panama's informal economy is huge
Strange moves for a government that wants to promote tourism
The Panama News readership figures

Plaza Catedral Flea Market
Transparency: does it mean you should clam up?
Business & Economy Briefs

Business & Economy Briefs

Merchants want traffic back on Avenida Central

In her time as mayor, Mayín Correa had a rather ordinary idea about turning that part of Avenida Central in Santa Ana, between Plaza Cinco de Mayo and the park, into a pedestrian mall. The buses and traffic and toxic fumes went away, but mostly the stores stayed the same. Travel guides written by people who never go there warned people to stay away from the "peatonal," which took on an identity as a working class gathering spot. Ah, but the people who hang there don't buy an awful lot and meanwhile malls around the metro area have been pounding the stores on Central, both those on the pedestrian mall and those farther up the street where there's a lot of traffic. In the places with traffic, vendors' kiosks are blamed for the slow business, but on the peatonal the merchants are blaming the lack of cars. It seems that the city council is receptive to the restoration of traffic, but Mayor Navarro and groups that are interested in better city planning concepts have yet to pronounce on the subject.

Panamanian coffee sets new price record

Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha coffee brought in $130 per pound in a May 29 online coffee auction in which 75 international buyers participated. This is the highest price ever paid for coffee sold in an Internet auction.

Construction worker survives 42-story fall

He's in stable condition but will probably never work in the construction industry again. On June 8 José Miguel Araúz fell 42 stories from where he had been working on the Terra View building that's under construction on Via Israel into dump truck. A day later he was in the hospital in stable condition but in danger of losing an arm and a leg that were seriously shattered. The Ministry of Labor shut the construction site down after the incident. The SUNTRACS construction workers' union has in recent weeks been threatening a national strike to protest unsafe working conditions.

Union leader Octavio Mena dies

Dr. Octavio Mena, the former secretary general of the AMOACSS union that represents doctors and dentists at the Social Security Fund health care facilities, died on June 1 of a heart attack. He was one of the leaders of the movement opposed to the privatization of the fund or its various operations.

June 28 FTA signing in Washington

A proposed free trade agreement between Panama and the United States is scheduled to be signed on June 28 in Washington. Then, under fast track legislative rules, it will be voted up or down without amendments by the houses of the US Congress. The Senate is sure to approve, but there still remains some doubt about whether it might pass in the House.

US Representative Jackson Lee likes the PRD

Texas Democrat and Congressional Black Caucus member US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee met with Panama's white government and business leaders on the eve of the OAS summit and described her talks as "very positive." Surely her black constituents would not be so positive if they knew about the racism scandal President Torrijos's man Franz Wever created in the Panamanian sports scene --- driving out Roberto Kelly as national baseball coach in a confrontation in which the epithet "mierda negra" was used --- but in the racially weird USA that sort of thing tends to get papered over with rhetoric about "our Latino brothers."

Multinationals tax exempt

By 41-11 party line vote the PRD caucus in the National Assembly has approved on third and final reading a law exempting multinational corporations that set up offices in Panama from paying income taxes. The legislation also makes it easier for foreign management employees of such businesses to get visas that let them work here.

ARAP gets jurisdiction over Perlas development

The controversial Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP), of unpopular dolphin capture notoriety, has been given the power to regulate all fishing, coral mining and tourist development activity in the Perlas Archipelago. Legislation to transfer these powers to ARAP will mean, for example, that developers who seek to destroy archaeological sites to put in gated communities for foreigners will have a more secure sense of impunity than they previously enjoyed.

Hotel El Panama strip joint prompts protests

The El Carmen Church, a number of nearby businesses and folks who think that the Via Veneto scene is already too crazy are protesting a government decision to grant a liquor license to the Cotton Club, a strip club that will be located in the El Panama Hotel. The license was granted this past February by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with no opportunity given for prior public comment.

Petaquilla draws protests, prosecution

Richard Fifer's Petaquilla mining project, which has been on the books for nearly two decades without actually producing minerals, was the target of a May 30 protest by campesinos and indigenous residents of the northern Cocle and western Colon border area where the company has been cutting roads and digging exploration trenches. The protesters, who block the Pan-American Highway in Penonome for about 20 minutes, complained of environmental damages that have affected their drinking water and threats from company employees trying to drive them from their homes. They seem to have the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) agreeing with them at least in part. ANAM is pursuing an administrative case against Mineria Petaquilla for several allegations of environmental law violations.

Evergreen wants to cut mangroves

Colon province's mangroves may be about to take another big hit. The Taiwanese Evergreen shipping company, which runs the Colon Container Terminal in Coco Solo, has asked for permission to cut down 18.3 hectares of mangroves for part of a new 50-hectare port expansion. These kinds of decisions have in the past year been taken away from the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) and given to the more pliant Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP).

UXO in Colon scrap metal

Three explosive shells were found in a batch of scrap metal that Colon buyer Mario Álvarez bought from a metal collector. The police were called in and removed the old ordnance, which they told La Prensa was still in a condition to explode. The US military abandoned bases and firing ranges without cleaning them of unexploded ordnance, and this has been a point of dispute between Panama and the United States ever since. The Panama Canal Treaty required the US government to "remove all hazards" but with the qualifier "insofar as is practicable." More than two dozen Panamanians have been killed and a number of others wounded in incidents involving such detritus from the training for war.

Odebrecht get $40 million to "guarantee success"

Few businesses get their success guaranteed by the government, but the Panamanian subsidiary of Brazilian construction giant Norberto Odebrecht SA recently did. The government has given the company some $40 million to "guarantee the success" of the Remigio Rojas irrigation project in Chiriqui province's Alanje district. The money will be disbursed through the HSBC bank.

Salterio charged with falsifying documents

HSBC Panama executive Joseph Salterio, already the object of a private criminal complaint alleging that he and an accomplice looted the assets of a rice company to the prejudice of a minority shareholder, looked as if he would have the prosecutors on his side when they didn't recommend that he be ordered to stand trial for embezzlement. Now, however, prosecutors are pursuing him for allegedly signing an acta that alleged that all shareholders were represented at a meeting where company assets were transferred, although that was apparently not the case. Charged along with Salterio in the document falsification case is Boris Reinmar Tejeira whom, unlike Salterio, the public prosecutors have urged a court to try for embezzlement.

Ngobes say son of Martín's tutor grabs land

Clemente Jiménez, the legal advisor for the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, has filed a complaint against one Cirilo McSween, whose father was the president's tutor, for grabbing 55 hectares on Cayo de Agua island in Bocas del Toro. Jim Morales, an Ngobe landowner, said that he sold a parcel of 35 hectares to McSween but that the latter then grabbed another 55 hectares that was not sold. McSween has in one way or another acquired more than three-quarters of the 400-hectare island, which has long been home to an Ngobe community.