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business & economy Also
in this section: Is Amway the Panamanian way?
Business & Economy Briefs
Comptroller General: unemployment at 6.3% Based upon its household survey method, the Comptroller General's office has announced that Panama's unemployment rate is at 6.3 percent, lower than it has been in several decades. Most economists would say that the true rate is a few points higher than that, but unemployment is by all accounts lower than it has been in a long time.
Milk shortage The uncontrolled price of "shelf life" milk is up and cartons of price-controlled fresh milk are harder to find in the stores lately. The problem is that the farmers' cost of producing milk is up due mainly to higher energy prices and they say that they can't make money selling to the usual dairy processing companies, so they have cut back their sales. A portion of their production is being made into cheese or yogurt, whose producers pay higher prices.
Free trade pact lacks the votes Multiple sources in Washington confirm that the US-Panama free trade pact, dubbed the "Trade Promotion Agreement," does not have the votes to be approved in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. An agreement with Peru is on its way toward easy passage with nearly half of Democrats and almost all Republicans in favor, but proposed free trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea will not be approved this year. The Panama deal might come up for ratification once Pedro Miguel González, who's wanted by the FBI for the 1992 drive-by shooting death in Panama of US Army Sergeant O. Zak Hernandez, is no longer president of the National Assembly --- but it might not. The whole affair has caused many Washington officials to take a new look at Panama and conclude that the rule of law is mostly theoretical in Panama, and if González serves his full term then he'll be leaving just a little more than two months before the 2008 US elections, when American politicians are not going to want to be seen taking positions on an unpopular piece of trade legislation.
Endara cites US sanitary problems So why not have a free trade agreement with the USA? Panamanians are fairly evenly divided on whether such a thing is a good idea, probably with a slight majority in favor. One of those opposed is former President Guillermo Endara, and he points to the US recall of some one million pounds of beef processed by the food giant Cargill because of e coli bacteria contamination. "I have an immense fear that we will end up with meat like this," Endara warned, "with Panama renouncing its sovereign right to sanitary controls."
Court suspends canal-area rezonings Although a few weeks ago it rejected challenges to the Housing Ministry's rezonings of parts of the former Canal Zone to favor higher-density developments by declaring that the old Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) land use plan has no current legal effect, the Supreme Court has held that challenges to those rezoning on other legal grounds might be valid and has thus suspended the challenged resolution pending further litigation. The suit that the court suspended the rezonings to hear was brought by neighborhood groups in Albrook, Clayton and Quarry Heights, but the ruling will also affect Amador and other areas. Housing Minister Balbina Herrera, the driving force behind these rezonings, has carefully avoided comment about them and, maybe fatally for her resolution, avoided the legally required prior public hearings on the changes.
New pipeline route doesn't entirely please The plan to run an oil pipeline right through the metro area's Gatun Lake water supply from Maria Chiquita near Colon to a platform off of Taboga Island in the Gulf of Panama has been revised, but it's still drawing criticism from environmentalists and people who live along the way. The longer proposed new route would go mostly overland along side the new Colon to Panama toll road, crossing the Chagres River just below the Madden Dam and Culebra Cut below the Centennial Bridge, then through the Howard export processing zone to Veracruz and underwater to a platform off of Taboguilla, a little more than three kilometers from Taboga. The proposed Energy Center of the Americas, a $40-billion proposal with backing mostly from Spain and partners in the Dominican Republic, also includes storage tanks and petrochemical factories. The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) has been having closed-door meetings with the promoters, which may indicate a Torrijos administration determination to go ahead with the project regardless of any environmental considerations. However, environmentalist groups are opposing the new route as well, as they say it still cuts through a small part of the Soberania National Park, would still affect Taboga if there were a big spill and, it is argued, does not include sufficient protections against leaks and explosions, particularly in areas close to where people live. One of the groups opposing the project, Oilwatch, argues that the existing oil storage facilities on Taboguilla have seriously affected the water quality not only that island but also of Taboga by frequent little spills and that the proposed new platform would make an unacceptable situation worse.
Moving water privatization target When citizens descended upon a November 1 legislative subcommittee meeting to oppose a proposed new water resources law that would allow presently public surface and ground waters to be sold to private parties as concessions, Environment Subcommittee president Vitelio Ortega told them that the law as posted on the legislature's website had been superseded and "improved." The new version, however, is unavailable to the public.
Court upholds CSS pensioners' right to work The Supreme Court has struck down a part of the 2005 Social Security Fund law requiring a person who otherwise qualifies for a Seguro Social pension to quit working in order to collect. This is the first significant legal setback for the Torrijos administration's controversial reforms.
$71 grand a day on Torrijos image La Prensa reports that the Torrijos administration is spending $71,000 per day on advertisements to promote its image. The president's Secretary of State Communications says that all the spending on hip hop radio ads touting Torrijos as an environmentalist, billboards predicting more jobs and so on are not exercises in political propaganda but "investing to inform the country."
INAFORP: 4,334 canal expansion jobs in 2010 The governmental Institute for Professional Training (INAFORP) reports that at the height of canal expansion work in 2010, there will be 4,334 people working on that job. More than half of these will be unskilled jobs, and a few will be for jobs calling for skills not available in the Panamanian labor force. There will be 1,164 canal expansion jobs next year and 3,226 in 2009, the institute predicts.
ACP reviewing expansion cost During the 2006 referendum campaign, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) estimates a cost of $5.25 billion for the Panama Canal expansion project. Critics called it a lowball figure, noted that the estimate was prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff of Boston Big Dig infamy and pointed at how in the ACP "vote yes" ads on television a bridge or tunnel across the Atlantic entrance to the canal was added to the project but this was never reflected in the cost projection. ("Off the books" expenses were, of course, the modus operandi by which Parsons Brinckerhoff and various Massachusetts politicians ran up huge cost overruns on the Big Dig.) Now, El Panama America reports, a couple of months after construction has begun, the ACP is reviewing the cost estimate it gave to voters, because of increases in the prices of fuel, steel and cement they say.
ACP lied about campaign expenditures Last year the ACP told the Panamanian people that it was spending $1 million on "educating" the voters with things like the Power Point show that promised 297,400 jobs from a canal expansion project that will directly employ about 6,000 people, not all at once. Now La Prensa has revealed that the figure was actually $2.4 million. The ACP now says that it erroneously stated a sum for what it had already spent at the time as the figure for its entire propaganda campaign. All of the ACP's spending was though ad agencies owned by the Barletta family, and of course former President (by way of a Noriega fraud) Nicolás Ardito Barletta was the source of the fraudulent 240,000 jobs to be created figure that was then fudged up to 297,400.
World Bank opening office here The World Bank is going to open an office in Panama City. The move coincides with the signing of a "strategic alliance" with Panama that will involve expenditures of at least $390 million over three years. Most of this money is destined toward the "Red de Oportunidades" program in which very poor families are given $35 per month in cash to keep their children in school. The program that the bank will fund is frequently used by President Torrijos as an opportunity to pass out envelopes of cash and give vitriolic speeches denouncing his opponents to crowds of recipients and selected reporters who won't ask any serious questions.
Cabinet revises hospital contract In a public bidding process, Constructores Profesionales de Ingenieria, SA won a contract to build a new Hospital de Panama Este for $45,993,000. However, the Torrijos cabinet has approved an addendum to the contract, which was drafted by the government. It didn't include money for the five percent IBTM tax on the contract.
APEDE sells its headquarters The Panamanian Business Executives Association (APEDE) has sold its building on Avenida Balboa and Calle 43 to a group of business owners including Colon Free Zone merchant Fred Harrick and Playa Blanca resort owner Rugiere Gálvez. The old building will be razed and something larger built on the site.
Off and on blockage of Pan-American Highway The construction of an overpass has not been the only thing slowing traffic on the Pan-American Highway in La Chorrera. Residents of the Playa Leona neighborhood were also blocking traffic in on-and-off disruptions on October 7 and 8, with riot police finally moving in and making nine arrests. The protests are about badly maintained streets and poor public transportation services.
Assembly approves public housing giveaway The National Assembly has approved the "Balbina Law," wherein the residents of 119 public housing projects with 10,360 apartments, all of the buildings between 30 and 40 years old, will be forgiven back rent or mortgage payments and be credited with such payments as they did make over the years toward titles to their apartments. These having been built and originally populated in the time of the dictatorship, many of the original residents got their apartments because they were political supporters of the PRD or its precursor organizations and many of them always figured that their apartments were political gifts for which they need not pay. The possibility of massive foreclosures and evictions was never very realistic, but now Housing Minister Balbina Herrera can campaign in those areas as the woman who gave the residents titles to their homes, or at least a fresh opportunity to obtain them. The problem in many cases, however, is that these homes are now miserable and dangerous slums.
New air service to French Caribbean Starting on December 11 there will be twice-a-week air service between Panama and the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, via Air Caraibes. More Panamanians have ties to these islands than is generally known, as a lot of canal construction workers from the English-speaking Caribbean married Martinican women, but as time went by these surnames on the distaff side were lost. Guadeloupe and Martinique are overseas departments of France and this move is both an improvement of Franco-Panamanian ties and a breach in Panama's historic discriminatory treatment of people wanting to come here from non-Hispanic Caribbean islands.
Cheap air service between Panama and Ft. Lauderdale Passengers with certain expectations may not like it. Bargain hunters probably will. Starting on February 1 the low-budget Spirit Airlines will be offering round trip service between Panama and Fort Lauderdale, Florida for around $169 in economy class and lower than that on some flights.
The new bank on the block What's that new sign in the banking district? It's the Venezuelan bank Banesco, which has just started operations here and hopes to have 21 branches up and running in Panama by the end of next year. A public company whose shares are traded on the stock market in Caracas, Banesco hopes to fill a "community banking" niche here in Panama. It will probably also be convenient for the growing Venezuelan exile community here.
Also
in this section: Is Amway the Panamanian way? Editorial
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