business & economy

Also in this section:
Northwest Passage navigable
Labor rights and their infringement in Panama
American developer trying to carve out part of indigenous comarca

WTO reviews Panama's economy, warns of canal expansion risks
PRD pushes water privatization, runs into opposition

El Valle's market changes with tourism boom

Free trade campaign gaffe forces Tico VP to resign
Business & Economy Briefs

Business & Economy Briefs

Rice price up, quality down

Rice is the main staple of the Panamanian diet, and we have some fairly specific laws about its grading. We also used to have price controls on the grain, but those have been sacrificed as part of the official market worship religion. So what now? Rice selling at 54 cents per pound in many supermarkets, more than half again more than what it was a couple of months ago, and virtually all rice sold as grade A is actually of an inferior quality (more broken grains and stones in the bag than the regulations allow). The Torrijos administration's planned response is to allow more rice imports and a duty reduction from 90 to 3 percent to bring prices back down, but that in turn has the nation's rice farmers quite upset.

Comptroller: economy grew 8.86% in first half

The Comptroller General reports that for the first half of 2007 the Panamanian economy grew by 8.86 percent as compared to the same months of 2006. Leading the way, it is said, were construction, building materials, telecommunications, tourism, the import/export business, transportation and financial services. For a number of reasons statistical and political, respectable economists have long differed with Panamanian government statistics on the national economy, but there is general agreement that there has been strong economic growth this year. Most of Latin America experienced a growth spurt during this time, but Panama's has been a bit more pronounced. In construction just at the end of the first half a number of high-profile Panama City building projects were canceled and high-end real estate speculation began to cool off, but more recently the work on the Panama Canal expansion began and will surely boost overall construction activity. A couple of other large public projects, the Cinta Costera landfill and road along Panama City's waterfront and the construction of a new sewer system for the metro area, will begin before the Torrijos administration leaves office and will add to the effect.

Trade deficit up

Along with the Gross Domestic Product, the Comptroller General reports, the nation's trade deficit also grew during the first six months of this year. At the end of June it stood at $2.9818 billion, some 44.9 percent more than a year before. This, despite a reported 13.5 percent increase in exports, which were more than offset by a 37.5 percent rise in imports.

Auto sales up

The Automobile Distributors Association of Panama (ADAP) reports that for the first eight months of 2007 sales of new cars went up 32 percent as compared to the same months of 2006. The biggest growth has been in sales of small hatchbacks, with sedans and the smaller four-wheel drive vehicles also selling well.

Online permit system has a flaw

The Torrijos administration has established an online business permit system called Panama Emprende, to make it easy to start a business in this country. It has worked in many ways, but the representantes in Panama City have a major complaint about it. There is no feature in that system to enforce the stricture that one may not operate a business that sells alcoholic beverages within 100 meters of a school or house of worship. The city council passed a resolution complaining that all around the city bars and stores that sell alcohol have been popping up in improper places, with permits duly issued through the online system.

City office move to create parking for Central

The city is remodeling the Hatillo Building on Avenida Central so that it can move out of its dungeon-like premises in the Eden Building on Avenida B. So what happens to the latter premises? The city's planning to remodel it as a parking structure that ought to be useful for many of the businesses along the nearby Avenida Central pedestrian mall.

Transport law put out of its misery

It started out with President Torrijos putting General Noriega's old adjutant on the job and an ensuing crackdown that took a lot of city buses off the road and made it very hard for commuters to get around the city. Then came the fire-breathing promises of a public transportation reorganization that would replace the owner-operated city bus system with a corporate "articulated" bus service. Then came the realizations that Torrijos didn't have the votes in the legislature to do any such thing, and hadn't planned for the infrastructure construction needed to implement the "articulated" bus system. (They did, however, cut some trees along Avenida Peru to show that they meant business, sort of.) At the end of the crackdown, the National Assembly was considering a "reform" proposal that included an amnesty for the bus drivers' unpaid tickets, a ban on supermarkets in the Interior providing free bus service to their customers and a few other minor changes. On September 20, after protests from many quarters, the plan was scrapped and sent back to committee for further study.

APEDE starts public transportation "crusade"

It would be more credible if an organization whose members actually ride city buses were behind it, but in any case the Panamanian Business Executives Association (APEDE) has launched a campaign to demand basic changes in the metro area's mass transportation system. The group is passing out black ribbons --- to car drivers, not bus riders --- to show its solidarity with bus riders.

Universities don't want the Normal School in their ranks

The Normal School in Santiago is Panama's oldest institution for the training of teachers, and now there is a proposal coming from that school, many educators and citizens from across the political spectrum to transform it into La Universidad Pedagogica, a full-scale university in which teachers can not only major in education but in the subjects that they teach or in educational administration or other allied professions. Should we be surprised that the University of Panama, which has chartered countless fly-by-night one-building private "universities" without libraries, would object? Gustavo García de Paredes, the University of Panama rector with the fake doctorate, warns that if the status and role of the Normal School is upgraded it will place his school's pre-eminent role in Panamanian education at risk. Of course, there are many people who like the proposal for exactly that reason. El Panama America also reports that the Council of Rectors, which includes García de Paredes, the rector of the Panama Technological University and the rectors of the country's principal private universities, also doesn't like the idea.

Torrijos lobbies for Panama's place in baseball playoff

When Panama's FEDEBEIS baseball federation, led by PRD legislator Franz Wever, drove out Roberto Kelly as the manager of the national team on the eve of the first World Baseball Classic using the racist epithet "mierda negra" to Kelly's face, followed by Wever's public defense of the term, Major League Baseball listened. Now it seems that Panama's invitation to play in the 2009 tournament is in doubt, with some reports that the Major League Baseball owners are taking the position that so long as Wever heads FEDEBEIS Panama won't be included. While in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly meeting President Torrijos met with Major League Baseball president Robert A. DuPuy to plead Panama's case. No word yet on any result.

More construction site accidents

On September 12 construction worker Dionel Gaitán, who wasn't wearing the required harness while working on the 29th floor of the Water View residential tower project on Calle 73 Este in San Francisco, fell 15 floors and was severely injured. Six days later the Ocean Two luxury condo project in Costa del Este had its second workplace death when a weak plywood scaffold platform broke under César Herrera and he fell seven stories to his death. The current Panama Canal Authority administration has a habit of under-reporting accidents and we saw that again when reports surfaced in the press on September 20 about the "first" construction accident in the Panama Canal expansion. In that September 17 incident the soil along the canal's bank gave way under a backhoe, which along with its operator slid into the water. No word on any injuries or their extent. The first canal expansion accident was actually on September 2 when a dump truck operator was electrocuted on the job near Paraiso, but of course the "official" construction start wasn't until President Torrijos touched a button to set off an explosion the next day.

Regional labor meeting condemns worker shootings

The Sixth Central American Joint Labor Platform Meeting, at which about 60 labor leaders from unions in Panama and the Central American countries convened in Panama City from September 19 through 21, denounced the shootings of SUNTRACS construction union members Osvaldo Lorenzo y Luigi Argüelles. The labor activists also gave their encouragement to Costa Rican unions that are supporting the "no" side in their country's referendum on ratifying the CAFTA free trade pact with the United States, analyzed proposals for free trade deals with the European Union and discussed the problems and possibilities of union organizing in the countries of the region.

Details of RP-Colombia electric hookup revealed

There are still permits to be obtained and final approvals to be made, but as of now the plan to connect the electrical grids of Panama and Colombia call for 55 kilometers of cable along the floor of the Caribbean Sea, coming up in Puerto Escoces in Kuna Yala. All told there will be 340 kilometers of power lines on the Colombian side and 274 in Panama to complete the entire hookup, with the undersea portion avoiding power lines that would cut through the Darien, disrupting the forest and creating easy avenues for a number of unwanted things. The project is estimated to cost $200 million and be finished in 2010.

Court nixes cable car contract, for now

The Supreme Court's Third Bench has suspended the contract for a private developer to build a cable car from the top of Ancon Hill to the Amador Causeway and a tourist complex atop the hill, because the concession was granted by the now defunct Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) without it having taken into account that Ancon Hill is a national park over which it had no jurisdiction. However, the Torrijos administration might just decide that it wants to turn the park into a trash-strewn imitation Disney World --- having taken into account that it's a national park --- and re-approve the concession.

WTO reviews Panama's economy, warns of canal expansion risks
PRD pushes water privatization, runs into opposition

El Valle's market changes with tourism boom

Free trade campaign gaffe forces Tico VP to resign
Business & Economy Briefs