business & economy

Also in this section:
Fears of a burst bubble prompt talk of real estate reform
Oil industry wins, communities likely to be starved out in "temporary" court ruling
SUNTRACS blocks traffic, goes to court over company union tactic

Pipeline, refinery and oil storage proposal sparks new environmental concerns
Business & Economy Briefs

Business & Economy Briefs

Confusion, glitches in driver's license renewals

The Transito Authority has come up with a new, more difficult to counterfeit digital driver's license and a new set of procedures to get new licenses, but it's causing some problems. To get a license renewed you must have one of the cedulas with a hologram on the front and a bar code on the back, so if you have one of the old cedulas you must get your cedula renewed before you can get your license renewed. The process of getting a paz y salvo (certification of no unpaid tickets) has been made easier for most people, who can now do it online. However, the online forms on the Transito website don't work for the cedulas of non-citizens.

US Consulate to close September 4 - 14

The American Consulate is moving from its temporary quarters at Clayton to the new US Embassy complex and will close down for a week and one-half in September for the move. They won't be doing visas or much else except in cases of emergencies from September 4 - 14, so if it's urgent get your consular business done before then. If you have any visa questions call 207-7188 or send an email to panamavisas@state.gov.

Retirees threaten to take to the streets

Push is coming to shove in the troubled talks about restructuring the public health care system. Many of the opposition political parties and the more militant labor unions have been boycotting the process, which is taking place against the backdrop of the poisoned medicines scandal in which the government is holding fast against overwhelming public majorities that want to see the health minister and Seguro Social director go. The doctors' negotiating committee (COMENAL) and the pharmacists are also threatening to walk out. Now another of the groups remaining in the talks, the independent retirees --- people who paid into the Social Security Fund (CSS) and get certain medical benefits but no retirement pensions from it --- say they will take to the streets if the CSS and Health Ministry are merged. Retiree leader Eladio Fernández alleges that this would be an expropriation from CSS contributors in order to rescue an insolvent Ministry of Health system.

Minimum wage talks underway

A labor and management commission appointed by President Torrijos is now considering the next adjustment to Panama's minimum wage. We have had the highest inflation in many years of late and in light of that the president is asking for a minimum wage of at least $300 per month. The minimum wage here varies by region and industry and is periodically reviewed. In case the members of the commission can't agree --- and deadlocks between labor and management representatives in these processes are common --- then the president gets to set the minimum wage by decree.

Tourism up

According to all observations, Panama's tourism is booming. The IPAT government tourism bureau estimated to La Prensa that the number of visitors coming to Panama this year will be 15 percent higher than in 2006, and that these people will spend a total about 18 percent more than their counterparts spent in 2006.

Long court case on old shipwreck ends --- maybe too late

Off of Playa Damas in Colon province, just past the town of Nombre de Dios, there is --- or was --- the remains of a very old ship. As in, very likely the remains of Christopher Columbus's caravel the Vizcaina. For years the wreck that diver Warren White discovered has been in limbo. At first it had a police guard. The Moscoso administration granted a concession to Investigaciones Marinas SA (IMA) to raise the ship, but lawyer Miguel Bush, who was a PRD legislator at the time, sued and the Supreme Court suspended the work. Now, after years of litigation, the high court has ruled in favor of IMA. However, White has been saying for some time that after the police took the guard off of the site, somebody came and took away essentially the whole ship, which even if it turns out not to have been Columbus's dates back to the early 16th century and is a priceless historical relic.

Ministry auctions park land, court challenges to continue

On July 23 the Ministry of Economy and Finance auctioned off a parcel of wooded land just more than 15 hectares in size to a single bidder, Eya’s Mazal Tov, SA. The land, adjacent to the former Fort Clayton, was to have been used for a new legislative palace, a project that hasn't gone anywhere for various budgetary and political reasons. A few days later, the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) released a survey indicating that the land is within the limits of the Camino de Cruces National Park. Environmentalists and historical preservationists who have been fighting in various lawsuits and for public support to save this and other nearby parcels from development have been claiming an intention to illegally develop national park land for years, while all that time the legislature and developers have been claiming that the parcels in question are not within the national park system. The ANAM survey will probably help the opponents of these developments in their court battles.

US funding for canal watershed conservation

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Panamanian government have signed a memorandum of understanding by which the American government will provide $1.2 million in matching funds and technical assistance to develop a conservation plan for the Panama Canal Watershed. The program will not just be about the water, but also about managing the parks in the vast watershed, the promotion of better farming methods and the creation of economic initiatives that don't degrade the canal's water supply.

Repossessed buses sold below value for scrap

During the Moscoso administration, the government avoided bus driver strikes by creating special conditions for bus owner/operators to buy new vehicles on credit from state-owned financial institutions even though the finances of their businesses would not support the repayments of those loans. Although laws designed to give public officials impunity for bribery and kickbacks prevent any real investigations, top officials at the Banco Nacional de Panama (BNP) at that time used the program as an opportunity to insist that the loans be spent on specific brands of buses from specific dealers and the logical question that's forbidden to be asked is what payoffs these bank officials may have received in return. Now there's a new batch of BNP managers who were not parties to whatever under-the-table deals were made during the Moscoso administration and a lot of the buses bought with loans granted in Mireya's time are being repossessed. It turns out that the current administration is selling the repossessed buses not on the market as operating vehicles --- which they tend to be --- but as scrap for $450 each. The problem with that is that generally the used tires alone can be sold for more than that. The Comptroller General, who's supposed to oversee public financial transactions to avoid corruption, is refusing to touch this issue, arguing that it's up to the Banking Superintendent.

Chinese replacement for diablos rojos doesn't impress

A 14-ton bus with individual seats sized for children and a weak makeshift air conditioning system installed to replace the heaters that are used in northern China? After the October 23 bus fire in which people were incinerated in a bus with no emergency exit, a bus that has little hammers next to a couple of thick glass windows and instructions to break the glass and jump out the window in the event of an emergency? Somebody in the Torrijos administration was either not thinking or unduly influenced, so it seems. The political aim is to replace the diablos rojos and smash the bus driver/owner syndicates by requiring buses that most of their members can't afford. The political promise is better bus service. A couple of the new Chinese buses are plying the streets of the capital in a one-month Transito Authority trial, but it seems that these are unlikely to be the replacement that satisfies the political aim and promise. Dionel Broce, one of the capital's bus syndicate leaders, says that if these are the replacements people will be crying to get the diablos rojos --- used US school buses imported, sometimes reconditioned and generally painted up to offer metro area commuter service --- back in service.

Concerns about lead in drinking water

Panama's Association of Master Plumbers has gone public with complaints that a number of construction projects are cutting costs by using cheaper plumbing materials that pose public health risks. The main complaint is the use of lead solder instead of more expensive materials to join pipes that provide potable water. This causes lead, which is toxic, to get into the drinking water of homes and businesses so built. The group also complains that other projects are using prohibited PVC pipe for drinking water, and demands that the Ministry of Health start inspecting the plumbing on building projects again. Because of budget cuts the ministry had discontinued such inspections.

185,000 illiterates

Panama was one of the first Latin American countries to mandate universal compulsory education, but particularly in the indigenous comarcas we have fallen well short of the goal set early in the 20th century. Citing UN statistics, La Estrella reports that Panama has about 185,000 illiterates, most of them in remote rural areas.

Most Banco DISA shareholders to get 55 percent

El Panama America reports that as the years-long legal wrangling over the collapse of the Banco DISA --- which was originally founded on US loan guarantees --- reaches one of its conclusions, those depositors who are Panamanian citizens will get about 55 cents on the dollar for the money they had in the bank. Under Panamanian law when a bank fails Panamanian citizens have priority, so any foreigners who had money in the bank won't get anything at all. There is no public deposit insurance system in Panama.

Chamber of Commerce presses free trade lobbying

Although members of the US Congress say that they won't deal with any of the proposed free trade agreements, including the one with Panama, before they come back from their August recess, that's not preventing a Panamanian business delegation headed by Chamber of Commerce Domingo Latorraca from heading to Washington for some summertime lobbying to shore up support for the deal. The main confrontation comes in the US House of Representatives and the Chamber's delegation is visiting both Democrats and Republicans in an attempt to influence what is widely expected to be a close vote.

Negroponte: if Dems reject TPAs it's a victory for Chávez

The partisan trap into which several proposed US free trade agreements have fallen into, including the one with Panama, was starkly illustrated on July 19 in Washington, when US Undersecretary of State John Negroponte addressed the Business Council for International Understanding and La Prensa's Betty Brannan Jaén was covering the breakfast event. The number two US diplomat argued that congressional failure to approve the "Trade Promotion Agreements" with Colombia, Peru and Panama would amount to a triumph for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. In the shorthand of Republican political epithets that's calling the senators and representatives who don't support these treaties a species of traitors, much as the Bush administration baits members of Congress who oppose the war in Iraq. It may be a sign that in the increasingly venomous partisan bickering in Washington the White House has decided that building bipartisan majorities in Congress is not as big a priority as the opportunity to smear the Democrats by association with those whom the right wing demonizes. If that's the case then it looks a bit less likely that the House of Representatives will approve the free trade deals with Panama and Peru. The Colombia deal is already a dead letter.

Fears of a burst bubble prompt talk of real estate reform
Oil industry wins, communities likely to be starved out in "temporary" court ruling
SUNTRACS blocks traffic, goes to court over company union tactic

Pipeline, refinery and oil storage proposal sparks new environmental concerns
Business & Economy Briefs