News

Isthmian Update

Some of the news in Panama

Canal administrator’s family company wins first canal contract.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) awarded the Panamanian company Constructora Urbana, S.A. (Cusa) the first contract for dry excavation of the access channel that will connect Culebra Cut with the new locks on the Pacific. Cusa bid US$41,094,000, the lowest price among 10 companies and consortiums that made proposals during the tender held on July 6. This raised criticisms since Cusa is owned by the family of Canal Administrator, Alberto Aleman Zubieta, who claimed to have sold his shares in the company.

The Minister for Panama Canal Affairs and the president of the board of directors of the ACP, Dany Kuzniecky, defended the transparency of the award of the contract.

The opposition Democratic Change Party, requested that Mr. Aleman, make public his tax return, so that it can be verified in front of the country whether he sold his shares in Cusa.

U.S.- Panama Commercial agreement approved
With a majority decision, the National Assembly approved in second debate the Commercial Promotion Agreement (TPC) between Panama and the United States. After seven hours of debates and after the intervention of more than 15 government and opposition deputies, at the moment of voting, 76 of the 78 present gave their votes in favor of the agreement.

The Academic Council of the University of Panama rejected the agreement, which it defined as an "undemocratic imposition", given that "the country knows nothing about it". The Academic Council, one of the maximum authorities of the university, expressed "deep concern and disagreement" with the way it was approved by the Assembly.

"Moonshine" Chicha
The consumption of "Chicha fuerte", a fermented corn liquor, is a tradition of Panama’s indigenous tribes, but it seems that someone is trying to commercialise it.

More than 200 gallons of fermented beverages were confiscated by police and a group of magistrates in the districts of Mariato and Soná. Confiscated were chirrisco and sugar cane liquor. The operation followed an anonymous phone call to the police, informing that there were people dedicated to the sale and commercialization of the beverages.

Spanish investment
The multinational Spanish textile company, Puig Codina, plans to install a distribution center in Panama. Along with its associate, the financial company Lauderda, Puig Codina seeks also to make investments in other sectors, and to obtain concessions in the energy and environmental sectors.

Bus fire investigation
The First Circuit District Attorney’s Office which is investigating the case of the bus fire in which 18 people burned to death, sent a judicial request to Guatemala and Mexico to determine if the manufacturers of the bus complied with the necessary safety requirements. Reports of the installation of the air conditioners and electrical systems were also requested.

Hydro electric plants
Of 138 requests presented to the Authority of Public Utilities (ASEP) to obtain a concession for hydroelectric project construction, only 11 have been approved. The concession of greatest capacity, 50,000 Megawatts (MW), was granted to the company Hidro Burica S.A., to build a hydroelectric plant on the Chiriquí Viejo River, in the province of Chiriqui.

New German passports
The German Embassy in Panama has advised that from November 1, 2007, it will issue a new passport carrying the fingerprint of the holder. The embassy advises German citizens residing in Panama that with the introduction of this "biometric passport" there will be delays.

Phone tapping
Judges of the Supreme Court and the public prosecutors of the Attorney General’s Office are arguing about rights to authorize telephone tapping in cases of serious crimes. The judges affirm categorically that the authorization of "telephone tapping" is consecrated in article 29 of the National Constitution.

Demands against the state
The Panamanian State is the defendant in civil demands totalling US$244,136,346. The report of the Superior District Attorney’s Office Specializing in Civil Affairs, revealed that from September last year to June, 2007, 176 civil processes have been dealt with, in which the State has 150 suits against it.

IPAT woos KLM
As part of the effort to promote new direct flights from Europe to Panama,

Massive refinery project faces objections

The company Centro Energético de las Américas has announced a multi-million dollar project: three compounds for oil refineries, petrochemical plants and gas, petroleum and chemical product storage. One is planned for María Chiquita in Colon, another in Howard and the third on the island of Taboga. All the plants will be connected by a pipeline of 90 kilometers that will pass under the Canal and protected areas, including adjacent to the ecological island of Barro Colorado and the Sovereignty National Park.

The announcement immediately produced strong protets. Representative, Tomás Altamirano Mantovani, commented "The residents of these sectors of the country know nothing about it."

Residents of the Island of Taboga are particularly concerned over a multi million dollar petroleum project since they say it would endanger the tourist activity of the sector.

The Civic Association of Taboga presented its objection to the project to the town council of that district.

The association points out that the plan to install fuel storage tanks on the Pechagra farm on Taboga, in front of the island of Urabá, threatens the existence of nesting places of sea birds, particularly brown pelicans.

Bridge Maintenance
The Ministry of Public Works is preparing to carry out maintenance on the Bridge of the Americas and the Centennial Bridge. On August 31 the tender for the maintenance of the Bridge of the Americas will be issued. It is expected to cost US$40-million. The same day the period of guarantee on the Centennial Bridge expires, and the Minister, Benjamin Colamarco, announced a diagnosis of the structure.

Duty Free Concessions
Business magnates Stanley Motta and Abdul Waked, of Motta International Wisa, gave president, Martin Torrijos the sum of US$173 million for the right to trade in the Tocumen Airport Duty Free Area.

New City of Howard
Howard, the old US military base and airport, located on the Pacific coast of Panama, will become a new commercial and urban district of Panama City, the largest of Latin America. This is due to a mega project that will be developed by the English company, London & Regional Panama, with an investment of US$705-million, over the next 40 years, of which US$405-million will be invested in the first eight years.

Ship registry
It is estimated that between 2007 and 2012, 1,300 new ships will be added to the more than 7,000 that are registered under Panamanian flag, the world’s largest shipping registry.

Bocas problems
A daily newspaper reported that in spite of the new tourist projects and the boom in the province of Bocas del Toro in recent years, a certain deterioration in the economy is beginning to be felt. Proof of it, said the report, is that at least 30 businesses have left Bocas for diverse reasons so far this year.

executives of the government tourist bureau, IPAT, held meetings with managers of the airline KLM, at their headquarters in Amsterdam. The assistant director of IPAT, Carl Fredrik Nordstrom, presented statistics to try to convince KLM to establish the route Amsterdam-Panama.

State payroll grows
The State payroll increased by 5,830 people at the end of 2006, to make a total of 156,505 civil servants, despite Law 6 of February 2, 2005, establishing that the administration of Martin Torrijos should reduce it to the levels of December 31, 1999, that totaled 140,903 officials.

New Ombudsman
The Ombudsman, Ricardo Vargas, has taken possesion of the post in the National Assembly.

Bus financing
The bus financing program for public transport carried out by the National Bank of Panama (BNP), will show a loss of more than US$12 million. During 2001 and 2002, the BNP disbursed US$25.7 million, of which only US$9.2 million has been recovered.

Fertilizers on the increase
The cost of the fertilizers used in agriculture has increased by more than 26 per cent due to the high prizes of petroleum and hikes in ocean and road freights. An example of this is seen with urea, which is now sold for $28 per 100 pounds.

Copa announces four new routes

Left to Right: Moisés Véliz, Vice-President of Government Affairs,
Jorge García Commercial Vicepresident of Copa, Zamira Lama
de Garrida for the Dominican Republic Embassy, H.E. Yanerit
Santamayor de Morgan, Ambassador of Mexico.

Copa Airlines has announced four new routes. The airline started direct flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Washington D.C. in the United States, on July 15. The first direct flight between Guadalajara and Panama departed on July 18. On August it will connect the city of Cordoba, in Argentina, with the rest of Latin America.

The route between Washington D.C. and Panama is the only direct flight without stops between these two important financial and government centers. This schedule will allow passengers to leave Washington D.C. in the morning, take care of business in Panama during the day and return the same day.

The airline also offers five flights per week between Panama and Guadalajara, connecting the state of Jalisco, Mexico with the rest of Latin America.

Copa Airlines will use Boeing 737-700 on its new routes with twelve seats in the Executive Class and 112 in Economy.

The Panamanian airline offers 116 daily flights to 39 destinations in 21 countries, in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

IMO meets here in October

The government of Panama signed an agreement with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to celebrate in the capital city the 93rd Period of Sessions of the Legal Committee of the IMO, from October 22 to 26 of 2007. The event will be organized by the Maritime Authority of Panama (MAP).

This is the first time that an IMO committee has had meetings in an American country. Previous assemblies have taken place in France, Turkey, Denmark, Malta and Kenya.

The Legal Committee of the IMO, comprises representatives from all the member countries of the organization and its principal objective is to discuss subjects related to the judicial and legal framework that governs the maritime sector.at international level.

SPORTS

Saladino gets the gold

The Panamanian long jumper, Irving Saladino won a gold medal in the early stages of the Panamerican Games, held this month in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil.

This is the first gold medal for Panama in athletics and the third in the history of the Panamerican Games. Saladino is ranked number one in the world and he won with a jump of 8.28 meters, which was achieved in his sixth attempt. His personal best in Rio di Janeiro was 8.56 meters

Freight at Panama’s ports increases by record 45 percent

The movement of TEU (containers of more than 20 feet long) in the main ports of Panama has increased by 45 per cent during the first five months of the year. These are record figures for Panamanian cargo transport industry.

Panama Ports Company (PPC), which operates the ports of Balboa (Pacific) and Cristobal (Caribbean) showed the highest growth. However, Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) had a fall of nine per cent in TEU movement, but it grew by 27 per cent in the movement of vehicles and equipment.

The manager of PPC said that this increase is due to expansion plans the company has implemented at the port of Balboa, where more than $300 million have been invested to expand it in order to serve larger ships such as postpanamax vessels.

The growing movement of containers creates one problem: because now there are not enough docks to unload other industrial products such as grains, fuel and iron slag. To solve this difficulty, the Maritime Authority is waiting to formalize the construction of a port in Rodman.

Panamanian Champion defends his title in Texas

Pelenchin Caballero.

Panamanian boxer, Pelenchín Caballero, the "Colonense" world champion of the super bantam category, 122 pounds will defend his crown for a second time against the Mexican Jorge La Cierva, number 13 in the World Boxing Association ranking.

Pelenchín, a native of the province of Colon will leave for Houston on July 29, and later travel to the Hidalgo City, Texas, where the fight will take place.

The Panamanian boxer won his title in October 2006 in Thailand with a knock-out in the third round and in March he defended his crown by knocking Mexican, Ricardo Castillo in nine rounds.

175 buildings under construction

New city skycrapers cause heated debate

Buildings of more than 40 floors on Balboa Avenue are blocking the circulation of wind coming from the bay towards the city.

However, the Director of Urban Development of the Ministry of Housing, Jose Batista, defended structures by saying that all tall buildings approved on this sector have around 43 floors, and comply with the existing rules, allowing a density of 1500 persons for hectare.

Other architects such as Alberto Arosemena, have yet another view.

He pointed out that the construction of buildings of more than 40 floors on Balboa Avenue have created a visual contamination, because of their height and their proximity to each other, also contribute to air pollution by blocking the flow of the wind.

Arosemena explained that other factors such as the traffic and an inadequate water supply are not been taken into account when they construct these big projects.

Meanwhile, "Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de Nacionales (IDAAN), the water supply company, is preparing itself by expanding the water processing plant at Chilibre, increasing its capacity from 175 to 250 millions of gallons of water per day.

There are also plans to decongest the traffic in the city by building a coastal road, but the matter still under discussion.

At the moment 175 buildings are been constructed in different parts of the city and 125 additional projects have been approved.

Al Zaraya restaurant opens in Boquete

Belly dancer "Sibila" (Sibila Ducreaux Gonzalez) entertains patrons at Al Zaraya, a new restaurant serving Mediterranean and international food which has opened in Boquete, in the province of Chiriquí.

The restaurant, owned by Mr Ziyad Ezi, is close to the town center on the road to Valle Escondido.

Convention Bureau moves to Atlapa

The Conventions and Visitors´ Bureau of Panama (BCVP) is planning to move their offices to Atlapa Convention Center and operate from premises that are more convenient for tourism, following the pattern of similar organizations in the region.

The president of the BCVP, Aida Quijano, said that the move to Atlapa will allow the organization invest the rent money in marketing projects.

Currently, the headquarters of the BCVP are located in the Magna Building, Calle Manuel María Icaza in the banking district.

London and Regional Properties promises:

New city of Howard will yield increasing dividends to govt.

The government of Panama will receive increasing dividends from the development of the Panamanian Pacific Special Economic Area (Howard).

The representative of the British company, London & Regional Properties, Hendry Kardonski, said that these dividends cannot be calculated before hand due to the formula established by the contract based on the value of the land or building at the time its sold or leased.

Howard airport is excluded from this concessions as well as the ST Aerospace, Dell Inc., IP Leather and River. London & Regional will manage the 1400 hectares of the project. However, it opened the posibility that in the future this company will develop a master plan that will allow it to administer these contracts and the airport. Government institutions in the area such as Sinaproc and the National Police will be relocated to other areas.

The Howard Project as it is known, will rebuild a 1.7-mile airstrip built by the U.S., but largely abandoned since its forces left the country eight years ago. A massive trading hub, known as the “multi-modal port” will be located there and will include the airstrip, access to the Canal, and vast depots to store a variety of goods that pass through the canal. Singapore Airlines has struck a deal to refurbish its Asian fleet of aircrafts on the site.

In addition to the multi-modal port, the area is also earmarked for thousands of new homes, hotels, a golf course, a science park and commercial centers. This underlines the attractiveness of Panama as a global investment destination.

The project, which has been described by the British company, as “one of world´s largest development deals”, aims at transforming the former Howard Air Force Base as Panama bids to position itself into the “Singapore of the Americas”.

London & Regional Properties, owned by brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone, competed against 16 other bidders including U.S. Easton Group and Codina Group and Mexican Cabi Control to win the project in an auction conducted by the World Bank´s IFC “soft-loan” division.

The British company partnered with Panamanian developers Isaac and Jaime Gilinski in presenting the bid, and say that they do not need further debt or equity partners in the project.

The company promised to have a master plan for Howard ready in three months. It will include the construction of the local headquarters of London & Regional, and a town center with all the facilities. This innovative concept will transform the area into an icon of the region.

Look on the web for your new driving license

Drivers in the interior can collect the new licenses at the offices of Traffic Authorities on the following dates:

Colon
Chiriqui
Herrera
Los Santos
Cocle
Veraguas
Bocas del Toro

August 20
August 30
September 3
September 6
September 10
September 17
September 17

Driving licenses in Panama will be replaced by a digital version, at no extra cost, from July 23. The pre-requisites are: no pending fines, current license and digital i.d. (the latest cedula, no the Polaroid version).

All drivers in the Republic of Panama must replace the Polaroid driving licenses with the new digital ones by October 31 of this year. Licenses will be issued by “Servicios de Tránsito Centroamericanos” (Sertracen) at centers located in Traffic Authority offices. They will use the first name, rather than the last name of the drivers to start the allocations. For example if your name is Albert White, can collect your new documentation now.

The cost is $20.00 but, after November, it goes up to $40.00

Program of distribution of the digital driving license

Initial of first name	Date of Distribution	Place
A until E F until J K until Q R until S T until Z	July 23 August 7 August 18 July 28 July 24	ATTT Pedregal ATTT Autodeport ATTT Los Andes ATTT Gran Terminal ATTT Plaza Concordia

The new driving licenses are printed using the photo, fingerprints and the database of the Electoral Tribunal. The Traffic Authority considers that the document is secure, because it has bar-codes that make difficult alterations and modifications. It also, allows the authorities to know the drivers' record.

Marketing plan for Azuero

Handicraft shop in La Arena, province of Herrera.

Ivy Vergara Correa

EVERYBODY WANTS A PIECE of the action. As tourism grows and visitors are venturing out of Panama City, businessmen in provinces of the “interior” are vying for their business. The latest news comes from the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera where a group of enterprising businessmen from the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera have created the Azuero Cluster.

The organization encompasses eleven companies, all of them related to the tourist sector. They have united forces with the aim of transforming this fledgling industry into one of the biggest sources of income in the area.

La Arena, Chitré

The Azuero group is one of the six tourist clusters of the program “Compite Panama” and works under the motto “Azuero, resort destination...under the sun”.

View from Villa Marina.

Ivy Vergara, technical co-coordinator of the project said: “The Azuero Cluster wants its region to become a recognized tourist destination and achieve the highest standards of quality.”

Isla Iguana

Santa Librada Church in Las Tablas.

This cluster, with the financial help of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) created a marketing and strategic plan to promote tourism in Azuero. Now they have a web site: www.azueroturistico.com, promotion material in a variety of formats like cds, maps, magazines among other items to help to market the region.

More than $20,000 were invested in this project and 80 per cent of this money was contributed by the IDB and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The other 20 per cent was raised by the members of the cluster.

The cluster is currently busy promoting the carnival of Las Tablas and other events that happen with great regularity in the area.

Noriega’s future still uncertain

France seeks extradition

Manuel Noriega.

France is pursuing for the extradition of the former dictator of Panama, Manuel Antonio Noriega as soon as he completes his jail term in the United Stated for drug trafficking, conspiracy and fraud.

Noriega´s lawyer in the United States, Frank Rubio said that French attorneys formally request to the United States to extradite the former general in order to face charges of buying three apartments in France with drug dealing money.

Rubio added that the American authorities do not have any other choice but to send the ex-dictator back to Panama, because he was declared a "prisoner of war" and according to the Geneva Convention, that is the proper procedure.

The Panamanian Foreign Minister, Samuel Lewis Navarro, said that Panama was never consulted about the French petition but the United States spokesman, Gabin Sundwall, said Panama was informed.

Noriega was sentenced in 1992, to forty years in prison by an American Court and he is scheduled to be released on September 9. His jail term was reduced for good behaviour and time served.

Focus Publications (Int.), S.A.