Mei 2008: Nieuwsflits Panama
From Handelswijzer Midden-Amerika van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Ambassade te Costa Rica
Panama 2nd best business climate in Latin America
Source: LBC
According to the 2008 Latin Business Index from Latin Business Chronicle; Panama has Latin America's second-best business climate after Chile. Other attractive business environment leading countries are Peru, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic. The index of 19 countries looks at five key categories and 27 subcategories to measure the recent, current and future business environment in a country, including macro, corporate and political environment; globalization/competitiveness and technology level.
Petroterminales de Panama to invest $100 million
Source: PanamaNews
President Torrijos has signed a contract with Petroterminales de Panama, calling for a $100 million investment that will expand the companies structure. The expansion includes: oil loading and offloading ports and storage facilities in Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui and Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro and a pipeline connecting these facilities. PTP also maintains the Atlantic-Pacific road connecting Chiriqui and Bocas. The plan is to expand the storage capacity from 5.8 to 9.2 million barrels.
British Petroleum in pipeline deal with Panama Petroterminal
Source: Associated Press A unit of BP PLC signed a deal to transport crude oil via pipeline from the Atlantic side of the Central American country to the Pacific side. By eliminating the need to sail crude oil tankers around the southern tip of South America, the seven-year deal will cut about 30 days off the time it currently takes BP to move Angolan crude from the Atlantic Ocean to U.S. West Coast refineries. The deal between BP Products North America and Petroterminal de Panama SA entails reversing the flow of crude oil through the 81-mile Trans-Panama Pipeline and modernizing it. Work on the pipeline is expected to take about two years. Under the agreement, BP will acquire 5 million barrels of storage and commit to pipeline shipments of 65,000 barrels per day. The refurbished pipeline will also aid Venezuelan oil exports to China.
Chevron to increase its bunker capacity in Panama
Reuters Chevron reports that it will double storage capacity at its Las Minas facility in Panama to 4 million barrels to meet growing demand for fuel derivatives in Central America. Las Minas, near Panama's Caribbean coastal city of Colon, provides bunker fuel, lubricants and other derivatives for ships using the Panama Canal and nearby ports. Chevron has already invested $13 million to increase capacity at Las Minas, one of several Chevron facilities in the country, to the equivalent of 2.04 million barrels.
Canal operating costs rise
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) increases its operating costs by USD 50 million for 2009 This is caused by the increase in fuel prices, reported the administrator Alberto Aleman Zubieta. In 2007, the fuel costs of the ACP were USD 85 million. This rose to USD 103 million and for next year will be USD 153 million.
Cargo volume increases by 32% in Panama ports
Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) Administrator Fernando Solorzano announced that containerized cargo moved in Panamanian ports grew by 32.2% in 2007 to 4,003,731 teus, compared to 3,027,562 teus in 2006. It was the first time that cargo volume passed the record figure of 4m teus. Colon Container Terminal (CCT) throughput grew by 14.9% to 705, 252 teus; Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) volume decreased by 3.9% to 1,279,903 teus; Panama Ports Co Balboa cargo increased by 85.5% to 1,833,778 teus; Panama Ports Cristobal throughput increased by 106.2% to 166,641 teus. “The excellent performance of Panamanian ports is mostly due to the expansion carried out at all the terminals during the past two years and by the constant growth of transshipment business”, stated Solorzano.
New National Maritime Strategy
The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) is reformulating its national maritime strategy to consolidate and improve its position as international logistics centre. Instead of only re-exporting goods, the AMP wants to look for opportunities to add value before the goods continue their journey. Panama ship registration is growing Panama has maintained constant leadership in the registration of vessels since it became the world’s first largest merchant fleet in 1993. Thanks to friendly registration procedures, the Panama Register increased by 5.87% during 2007 bringing the total fleet to 7,605 vessels at December 2007, up from 7,183 a year ago growing by 8.38% to 168M gt, up from 155M gt at December 2006.
Inauguration new logistical centre DHL
By investing USD 4.5 million DHL now has the biggest and most modern logistical centre in Latin America and improves its capacity of moving packages with 250%. The centre, located at Tocumen International Airport, serves 49 countries and currently moves over 20 tons of product per day.
Caterpillar in Panama
The company Caterpillar, producing heavy machinery for the construction, will move its Latin-American head office to Panama. This will involve an investment of around USD 25 million and is expected to generate income and employment by approximately 300 people.
Panama sells Claro, Digicel mobile licenses
Source: Reuters
Panama awarded Irish-backed Digicel Panama and Claro Panama, a unit of billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil, concessions to run new mobile phone networks. Digicel, owned by the Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, made a bid of $86 million for one license, beating a $73 million offer from Claro Panama. After a third firm dropped out of the running, Claro was asked by the Panama government to equal Digicel's offer, which the America Movil unit did. Panama had set the minimum price at $57 million. The two firms will join the incumbents, Cable & Wireless Panama (jointly owned by the state and Cable & Wireless Plc) and Movistar Panama, a branch of Spain's Telefonica.
Panama government considers selling stake telephone operator C&W
Source: Reuters
Panama may sell its 49 percent stake in the telephone operator Cable & Wireless Panama S.A., co owned by Cable & Wireless PLC. “Panama's government is examining options but has not decided whether the sale will go ahead or how it would be carried out”,,stated economy ministry spokesman Manuel Naza. In 1997, London-based Cable & Wireless PLC bought 49 percent of state-owned telecoms monopoly Intel S.A., for $652 million, making it the first foreign firm to enter the Panamanian telephone market. The government retained a 49 percent share with the remaining 2 percent owned by employees.
Los Faros de Panama project finally takes off
“Engineers building the project "Los Faros de Panamá", at an estimated total cost of $600 million dollars, have laid its cement foundations”, said Julio Fábrega, the general sub-manager of Hogalia Panamá, of the Grupo Mall that is building the project. Located in the exclusive Punta Pacifica district in Panama City, the project is estimated to be completed by the first quarter of 2010. The Mexican construction company Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA) is responsible for this stage of the project which includes pouring foundations, lateral and perimeter retaining walls, buried networks, and waterproofing. Los Faros de Panamá will be a compound with three skyscrapers, and will include a casino, hotel, commercial centre, luxury sports areas and corporative offices. Its residential area will consist of 1,786 apartments.
Prices for building materials way up
The Panamanian Chamber of Construction, the builders' industry group, estimates that in the past year the prices of building materials have gone up by an average of 35 percent. It's higher for key components like cement and rebar. Labour costs are also up, by about 10 to 15 percent. That means that even though sales have slowed down in many segments of the housing industry, the cost of a new home is still going up.
Colon Free Zone business is down
Source: El Siglo
Economists predict that the Latin American countries (for which the Colon Free Zone serves as a wholesale emporium and warehousing district) will grow at a substantially slower rate during the coming years. The effect on the Colon Free Zone is a shrinking of economic activity on the short term. In March businesses in the duty-free import-export zone reported $1.2242 billion in transactions, $153.6 million less than the same month in 2007 (equivalent to a drop of 11.1 percent). The big change is caused by the reduction of inventories, due to a drop in imports down by 21.6 percent as compared to March 2007. Merchants expect business to be slow. Exports from the Colon Free Zone dropped, by 2.3 . The pattern last year was equal.
Tourism up 11.9% in first quarter
The government's IPAT tourism bureau, collecting data of foreigners coming in through Tocumen Airport, the Paso Canoa border crossing with Costa Rica, the cruiser ports and other points of entry, claim that in the first three months of this year tourism went up 11.9 percent as compared to the same period in 2007. Part of this increase would be because of the change in tourist visa rules (those who are living here on repeated tourist visas have to leave the country more often because visas now have shorter durations), and because Europeans and Canadians, with strong currencies get a better vacation deal.
Panama food costs continue to rise
Source: Prensa Latina
The Ministry of Economy and Finance published that basic foods cost increased by 1.2 percent between February and March. This is the third rise in food prices reported this year. Last year prices of basic foods were 20.9 percent cheaper. The average price of 50 selected basic food products containing a daily 2,305 calories - reached a cost of USD 246.79 per month (214.39 last year). All food products increased in price this year, and the highest increase is registered in fats (46.9 percent including vegetable oil and margarine) followed by dairy products (38.7 percent including cheese and powered milk) potatoes (21.6 percent) and bread (19 percent).
Panama President to cut food prices
Source: Prensa Latina
Panama President, Martin Torrijos announced new plans to stop the rise in cost of living and implement subsidies to improve conditions for economically disadvantaged families. Torrijos further announced that the Program of Food Solidarity set aside a budget of USD 15 million to supply seeds, fertilizers, animals and technical assistance to fifty thousand rural families in conditions of poverty. He added that the purpose of the plan is to improve productive capacity of these farmers. Torrijos further informed that the initiative adds to the Network of Opportunities through 35 dollars monthly to the poorest families for help in education and medical attention.
Rural electrification
The Office for Rural Electrification (OER) called for proposals in support of installing solar energy systems and micro hydroelectric power plants in areas of difficult access of Coclé and Herrera. Jose Rodriguez, director of EOR, said the projects should benefit places such as Playón Chico and Rio Sidra, in Kuna Yala and San José, Calobre, Veraguas, and other sites in the provinces. USD 5 million is made available for awarding the proposals.
PRD reigns in Panama
Source: Prensa Latina
A massive process of registration has benefited the currently governing PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party, centre-left political party of Panama). The PRD managed to register 55,000 persons. According to a preliminary report the number of affiliates nears 650,000, now exceeding five times the total number of registered persons with opposition parties. Fifth change of Cabinet A year before his presidential term ends, Martín Torrijos changes part of his Cabinet. This is the fifth time during his total term. The change entails three persons: Salvador Rodríguez, Gabriel Diez and Dilio Arcia become the new ministers of Education, Housing and Presidency. APEDE picks Roberto Alfaro as president Roberto Alfaro, the former Panamanian ambassador to the United States, has been chosen as president of the Panamanian Business Executives Association (APEDE) for a one-year term beginning on August 1.
Vuelo por la vida
Competing with seven other pilots from all over the world, Remy Swaab wanted to be the first ever to make the hazardous journey passing the Panama Canal by paramotor. The objective was to raise money for the Foundation of Friends for Children with Leukemia and Cancer (FANLYC). In the end they managed to raise no less then USD 30.000! For more information visit the website www.vueloporlavida.org.
Anti-smoking law in effect
On April 24 a new law that prohibits smoking in most enclosed spaces went into effect. The protests of bar, restaurant and hotel owners and of course the tobacco companies did not change opinion. The law also bans virtually all tobacco advertising and raises taxes on tobacco products.
