Panama president approves first step of canal expansion
By: posted by Julia Kuzeljevich: PANAMA CITY, Panama-- President Martín Torrijos and the Cabinet Council of Panama have approved the proposal to expand the Panama Canal. Dr. Ricaurte Vásquez, Chairman of the Panama Canal Authority's (ACP) Board of Directors and concurrent Minister for Canal Affairs, submitted the said proposal to the National Assembly. The National Assembly will review the proposal and hold discussions that will be open to all Panamanian citizens. If approved, the Assembly will then create a law mandating a referendum to be held after 90 days in which the people of Panama will vote on expansion. "This marks an important milestone for Panama and its Canal, as we take another step toward shaping the future of our country and waterway," said ACP Administrator/CEO Alberto Alemán Zubieta. The Panama Canal expansion would be the largest project at the Canal since its original construction. The project would double the waterway's capacity and allow more traffic by creating a new lane along the Canal through the construction of a new set of locks.
Panama-based BNS Internacional, a subsidiary of Canada's Scotiabank (NYSE: BNS), launched on June 29 a tender offer for 100% of Costa Rican holding company Corporación Interfin, an official from local securities regulator Sugeval confirmed to BNamericas. The offer, at US$1.66 per share, expires on July 14. Scotiabank has stated its intention to purchase 100% of Interfin for US$294mn. However, "what Scotiabank has for sure is about 78% [of Interfin] as it reached an agreement with Interfin's three main shareholders. But whether Scotiabank acquires the remainder will depend on stockholders, who may prefer not to sell their shares, which has happened before," a broker told BNamericas. In 1999 Panama-based financial group Grupo Banistmo launched a tender offer for Costa Rica's Corporación Banex and a few stockholders decided to not sell their shares, expecting to get a better price, something which never happened, the stockbroker said. These shares became extremely illiquid and Banistmo is still trying to find a way to control 100% of Banex, the trader added. Corporación Interfin is the holding company for Costa Rica's fourth largest bank Banco Interfin, which had an assets market share of 7.4% at end-March this year. Corporación Interfin also owns leasing companies, a stock brokerage, an offshore bank and a pension company.
Don King has assembled a tremendous boxing undercard supporting his Gateway to Glory main event of International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion Roman "Made in Hell" Karmazin defending his title against St. Louis's own former undisputed world welterweight champion Cory "The Next Generation" Spinks on July 8 at Savvis Center. World title implications abound with four fighters on the card returning to the ring for the first time after surrendering their titles: (Spinks, Daniel Santos, Jean-Marc Mormeck and Maselino Masoe). Steve "USS" Cunningham vs. Guillermo "El Felino" Jones International Boxing Federation Cruiserweight Championship The vacant 200-pound limit IBF cruiserweight championship will be will be decided when respective IBF No. 1- and No. 2-ranked fighters Steve "USS" Cunningham and Guillermo "El Felino" Jones meet in a re-match that has been added to the SHOWTIME Championship Boxing telecast, along with the main event, beginning at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
According to high-level security officials in the Panamanian government, the recent detention of two Iranian film makers at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City had nothing to do with controversial Panamanian political figure Dr. Miguel Antonio Bernal as reported in other media. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Panama last week amid heightened security. Cuban intelligence and security personnel were supporting Venezuelan security forces to boost security in Panama during Chavez's visit. Cuban intelligence agents alerted Panamanian officials to the presence of the Iranians and demanded their detention. The Iranians had apparently filmed Chavez's arrival in Panama and parts of his visit to Panama. The Cubans also demanded that two citizens of the United States who were leaving Panama after visiting as tourists be detained and questioned as well. Apparently, Panamanian security personnel detained both the Iranians and Americans, checked them out, and then sent them on their way. The Iranian's videotapes were returned to them before they departed Panama. The rest of the story follows below.
Today (Thursday) prices at the gas pump are dropping a few cents. In Panama prices are regulated by the government and every two weeks the Ministry of Commerce and Industry "tweaks" the price up or down depending on supply, demand, and the international price of resources. According to a press release from the Authority for Consumer Protection 95 octane will drop $.23 cents per gallon, and 91 octane will drop $.05 cents per gallon. the MICI set prices at $3.30 per gallon for 95 octane, and $3.01 cents per gallon for 91 octane. Light diesel and bunker fuel both dropped about five cnets per gallon to $2.43. On the other hand, a 60-lb tank of LPG went up $.42 cents and a 100-lb tank went up $.70 cents. The new prices will be in effect until 12 July (2 weeks).
The Spanish company Indra won a contract valued at $13.5 million dollars to digitize and to unify the alert network of the Panamanian Maritime Administration (AMP). The project will connect to the institution with the 77 Panamanian consulates in the world and with the AMP's technical offices in New York, London and Manila, according to a press release from company. Indra won the contract and was choosen from among ten companies that participated in the bidding. The money for the project is coming from an international public aid fund coordinated by the Nations United Development Program (PNUD), explained Encarnación Samaniego, chief of a main directorate of the AMP. He added that the $13.5 million dollars will be paid in a period of five years and that the funds will come from the $10 million additional annual dollars that the AMP will collect through the issuance of licenses of sailors once the new digital platform is implemented in 2007.
Gustavo García de Paredes won the election yesterday for the position of Rector of the University of Panama with about 71.5% of the vote. When this article was written all of the results were not yet available, but with 91 out of 149 balloting tables accounted for, García de Paredes was winning with a comfortable margin. Dr. Roberto Arosemena Jaén has about 25.8% of the vote, and Moisés Espino managed to win 2.71% of the vote even though he pulled himself out of the race early yesterday morning. So, five more years, and a fourth turn at the helm for García de Paredes. You know, it's getting hard to find something significant that the PRD does not control in this country.
Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:03am ET NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - Panama's Copa Holdings SA (CPA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday a secondary offering announced two weeks ago of almost 6.6 million shares held by Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was priced at $21.75 per share. After the sale, Continental will hold about 12.3 percent of Copa Holdings, or about 10 percent if underwriters of the sale act on a 30-day option to buy an additional 984,375 shares from Continental, the Panama City-based company said. Copa unit Copa Airlines flies to 30 destinations in 20 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering.
BY GORDON WEEKS: In his debut book “Panama or Bust,’’ summertime Fidalgo Island resident Jim Jaillet details his nearly year-long, 11,122-mile RV trip through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Jim Jaillet by birth is a wandering Sagittarian, by practice a longtime RVer, by curiosity immersed in Hispanic history and culture. Yet he hesitated to propel his 23-1/2-foot Suncrest RV south of Mexico into Central America. “I was afraid to go,’’ said Jaillet, a summertime resident of Fidalgo Island. “It was called the fear of the unknown.’’ Jaillet overcame his fear and launched a nearly year-long, 11,122-mile plunge through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. He also made more than 5,000 miles in side trips in his towed Ford Bronco II. For six months, Jaillet and his dwindling number of cohorts didn’t see another RV. That prompted him to write his debut book, “Panama or Bust’’ a day-to-day travel book which chronicles the good (the scenery and the people), the bad (the roads, the bugs, the hassles at the borders) and the ugly (four burglaries).
By PRENTISS FINDLAY: People who live in the Panamanian rain forest need a hand up, not a hand-out. That's the message of the 92-foot ketch Pajaro Jai, which made an unscheduled stop in Charleston on its maiden voyage from Colombia to Washington D.C. The $1.4 million ship is the brainchild of Jim Brunton, a Connecticut computer software entrepreneur who discussed his mission while wearing a straw hat to protect his reddened face from the sun. He said he will sail the world on the ship, a project of his Pajaro Jai Foundation. "We go to Washington. We have a press conference," he said. Brunton said the ship and crew, which includes native Chocoe Indians from the village of Mogue in the Darien rain forest of Panama, experienced a taste of Charleston hospitality when the Spirit of South Carolina shipyard threw a barbecue Monday night. The ship, which was docked at the Maritime Center, was scheduled to leave on Tuesday night, he said. The crew of the 82-ton ship includes nine natives of the Panamanian rain forest. Back home, they subsist on fishing and farming, live in thatched huts on stilts and travel in dugout canoes. Snakes, birds and other animals from their home were carved into the burnished wood interior of the ship, which they built from rainforest lumber in a 15-year project under Brunton's guidance.
China topped the list of nations exporting goods to Panama's Colon free trade area in 2005, Panama's Comptroller General said in a statement on Tuesday. According to the document, China's Hong Kong represented 20.5 percent of all trade within the zone, while the mainland represented 4.5 percent. The bulk of Chinese goods -- electronics, footwear, clothing and textiles -- were exported through Hong Kong, the document said. Total imports of the free trade area topped 5.747 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, and the beginning of 2006 saw an increase of 17.6 percent year on year. Severo Souza, president of the trade area's users association, said he hoped that the first quarter trend would continue in coming months. Source: Xinhua
Chile and Panama yesterday signed a free trade agreement that will eliminate 98 percent of tariffs on trade between the countries within 10 years. ‘‘Panama and Chile are generating the necessary conditions for an economic takeoff that will allow us to leave underdevelopment behind,’’ said Panamanian Vice-President Samuel Lewis Navarro. Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Alejandro Foxley described Panama as ‘‘politically close’’ to Chile. While the agreement will take effect over a period of years, Panamanian Commerce and Industry Minister Alejandro Ferrer said that cooperation between Chile and his country was already bearing fruit. The two nations have a longstanding commercial relationship. The majority of the trade is in Chilean exports to Panama, which reached US$111.5 million out of US$122.3 million in bilateral trade last year. Panama hopes the pact will narrow the imbalance. Chile is the fourth-heaviest user of the Panama Canal, a position which could be boosted by the pact, according to Foxley. He also expressed support for plans to expand the canal. 
(Editor's Comment: Tomorrow there will be an election to replace the sitting Dean of the University of Panama, Gustavo García de Paredes. Last weekend Panama's Supreme Court decided that García de Paredes is not eligible for reelection and ordered him removed from the balloting. Yesterday García de Paredes submitted a request for reconsideration which the court admitted. That's what's going on...) According to lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal, the President of Panama Martín Torrijos is pressuring the Third Room of the Panamanian Supreme Court to reverse their earlier decision that suspended the candidacy of Gustavo García de Paredes and prevented him from running for the position of the Director of the University of Panama. "The President let himself be blackmailed by rumors that there would be chaos" and therefore the "twisted the arms" of the supreme court judges. Last Friday the Third Room dictated a decision suspending the candidacy of Gustavo García de Paredes in his bid to win reelection to the position of Dean of the University of Panama. Yesterday the same court dictated a resolution in which it accepted a request for reconsideration submitted by Gustavo García de Paredes, and which effectively "suspends the suspension" and allows him to participate in the election. The Office of the Presidency said little in response to Bernal's accusations. Jose Hernandez, spokesman for President Torrijos, said that Torrijos has demonstrated his respect for the separation of powers of the state and said that it is totally false that Torrijos has influenced the court. The Dean of the Law School at the University of Panama, Carlos Muñoz Pope, prepared the request on behalf of García de Paredes said in his brief that the suspension should only be allowed or applied to avoid serious damages, which is not the case for his client.
One of the things that happens regularly in Panama is localized short-term flooding caused by very heavy rains combined with high tide. Yesterday afternoon heavy rains caused the Chilibre and Chilibrillo rivers to overflow their banks because they could not handle the flow and there was a 15.6 foot high tide at 4:41 PM. The flooding had water levels as high as 1.5 meters in some homes, and a total of 60 houses and more than 300 people were affected. Government representatives from the SINAPROC and MIVI helped the victims.
The Housing Commission of the National Assembly approved yesterday a bill that declares that a massive program to title lands to be good for the public order and social interest. The bill was presented last week by the Minister of Economy and Finance Carlos Vallarino. "70% of the Panamanian population is in some kind of informal situation with regards to their lands and many others are are in a dispute over their possessions" he said. In agreement with the President of the Commission Pedro Miguel González the proposed bill would look to improve and streamline the process to title land. The proposal was sent out of commitee to the second debate "with urgency."
Boosted by the implementation of recent free trade agreements Panamanian exports reached $325 million dollars during the first trimester of 2006, represnting an increase of $84 million dollars, or 35%, in comparison with the same period of 2005, according data from the General Comptroller of the Republic. Nontraditional products like watermelon and pineapples as well as meats, seafood and live animals are among the primary exports.
In an exciting study that provides new understanding of how animals learn -- and learn from each other -- researchers have demonstrated that bats that use frog acoustic cues to find quality prey can rapidly learn these cues by observing other bats. While numerous examples are known of instances where predators can use so-called "social learning" to learn new visual and olfactory cues associated with prey, this kind of learning of an acoustic cue had not been previously described. The work is reported by Rachel A. Page and Michael J. Ryan of the University of Texas at Austin and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and appears in the June 20th issue of Current Biology. The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses frog calls from different species as acoustic cues to assess the palatability of its prey. Previous experiments have shown that T. cirrhosus is extremely flexible in its foraging behavior. In the new study, Page and Ryan investigated the role of social learning in bat foraging flexibility. Comparing three different learning groups, the researchers measured the rate at which bats learned new foraging information: in this case, the novel (experimental) association of the calls of a poisonous toad species with the presence of palatable prey.
MIAMI (AP) -- Authorities say two men died and two more have been hospitalized after stowing away in a shipping container full of T-shirts. The container was aboard a freighter bound for the Port of Miami from the Dominican Republic. The men were found after the Panama-flagged Seaboard Trader moored at the port last night. Authorities say the vessel was carrying merchandise for Sara Lee Branded Apparel. It had departed Saturday from Puerto Plata, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Authorities say the 40-foot-long container the men had hid in had been packed in Haiti before being loaded onto the vessel in the Dominican Republic. It is unclear how the two stowaways died, but all four men are all believed to be Dominican nationals. A US Coast Guard spokesman says the men could have been in the container for up to four days. It's not clear how the men hid themselves in the container.
The New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting said in its annual World Cost of Living Survey that Sao Paulo and Rio occupy positions 34 and 40, respectively, on a list of the world's most expensive places, up from 119 and 124 last year. Covering 144 cities on six continents, Mercer's annual survey uses New York as a base to measure the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, transport, food, clothing and entertainment. Mercer named Moscow as the most expensive place in the world to call home. On the other end of the spectrum was Asuncion, in 144th place. The survey also measured Lima, Peru (118), Panama City (121), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (126), Bogota, Colombia (130), San Jose, Costa Rica (134) and Quito, Ecuador (135).
Panama's Vice-President Samuel Lewis Navarro, left, and Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley exchange documents signing the Free Trade Agreement (TLC) between both countries in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, June, 27, 2006. (AP Photo/Santiago Llanquin) The two countries agreed on the details of the pact back in February after fifteen rounds of talks. Chile accepted Panama's proposals on financial service, professional service as well as market access for agricultural and industrial products, said Alejandro Ferrer, Panama's Minister of Commerce and Industry. He said chile has also acknowledged the important role Panama's Colon Free Zone has played in the regional and world trade. It is the fourth FTA Panama has reached as the country has signed free trade deals earlier with El Salvador, China's Taiwan and Singapore. Ferrer emphasized that most of the Panamanian products will enjoy a zero tariff when entering chile's market. And tariff reduction for 8 percent of Panama's exports to chile will be completed within 10 years. The two sides excluded some sensitive issues from the agreement such as market access for agricultural products. Free trade negotiations between the two countries failed in 1998 due to big differences on financial services. The talks resumed in July 2004. During this round of negotiation, Panama and chile agreed to start talks on financial services within two years.
LONDON (AFX) - Circle Oil PLC and Australia's Montage Petroleum Ltd have agreed to jointly explore an offshore field in Panama. Circle holds the licence for the 30,000-square-kilometre Block A, located in the south-western Caribbean, off the northern coast of Panama. Montage will take up a one-third interest in the licence, while operator Circle will own the rest. Exploration work on the site will begin later in the year, Circle said in a statement. monicca.egoy@afxnews.com
CAIRO, June 27 (Reuters) - A committee investigating the sinking of an Egyptian ferry which claimed the lives of over 1,000 people widened the blame for the disaster on Tuesday to include Panama, under whose flag the boat was sailing. The Al Salam 98 ferry sank en route to Egypt from Saudi Arabia in February. Six Egyptians, including the boat's owner Mamdouh Ismail, face charges of manslaughter over the disaster. "We must start with shortcomings on the part of the flagging country's government, because it is responsible for inspecting the rescue equipment and the safety of the boat," committee member Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Naby told reporters. Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour said the committee's job was to identify what made the ferry sink and not to apportion blame. Committee head Mohamed Abdel Fatah Shamma said the Panamanian delegation had withdrawn from the committee. They had insisted on focusing on the direct causes of the sinking, without examining failings by the various parties, Shamma said. After examining the ferry's voyage data recorder, recovered from the wreck at a depth of 920 metres (3,000 feet), the committee concluded that several factors were to blame..
By KATHIA MARTINEZ Associated Press: PANAMA CITY, Panama — Panama's president sent lawmakers a bill Monday calling for a referendum on whether the government should undertake the biggest modifications to the Panama Canal since it was opened in 1914. The project calls for a construction of a third set of locks on the canal that would reduce long lines of ships trying to cross the canal and allow larger ships to pass through. It is projected to cost $5.25 billion in a country whose annual budget is $6.5 billion. President Martin Torrijos says the expansion is necessary to keep the canal competitive in the 21st century. The canal, 105 feet above sea level at its highest point, uses a series of parallel locks to lift ships to Lake Gatun for the transoceanic passage. So-called Panamax ships carrying 4,000 containers can now just barely fit through the canal's 108-foot locks. The new third set would be 177 feet wide and be able to accommodate post-Panamax ships that can carry twice as many containers. Opponents of the proposed canal expansion contend the project is risky because it is based on uncertain projections about maritime trade and the world economy. Recent polls indicate that a majority of Panamanians favor the expansion.
Over the past 15 years, a sophisticated financial system, relatively sound fiscal policies, and a number of structural reforms have helped spur economic growth in Panama. But not all Panamanians have benefited equally. Advanced, export-oriented sectors coexist with less prosperous domestically oriented ones, including an informal economy characterized by significant poverty and inequality. How can Panama ensure that the fruits of economic success are more widely shared? Sustained economic growth is a necessary underlying condition for poverty reduction, but expanded educational opportunities, increased labor market flexibility, and improved governance will also be crucial. Panama has a dual economy. Its sophisticated regional financial center, newly modernized Panama Canal, booming construction industry fueled partly by foreign demand, and rapidly growing tourism and other industries oriented toward the export of services coexist with a 37 percent poverty rate and persistent unemployment, notably in rural areas. Indeed, a large share of the labor force, lacking the skills needed to take up jobs in Panama’s fast-developing industries, is still concentrated in the informal sector.
By Ron Fraser: Latin America Swings Left. Latins Dump U.S. Chinese Business Invades Latin America. Chavez Sends U.S. Troops Home. Morales Nationalizes Oil and Gas Industry. Beheadings in Mexico. A confusion of headlines have flooded in from Mexico, Central America and South America over the past few years. What is really happening in the turgid mix of Latino politics? Believe it or not, the real story is not being told. Yet the headlines were written, in some cases, millennia ago in Bible prophecy! Let us explain. Anyone half interested in the Latin American sphere is well acquainted with the volatility of its politics. In the 19th century, inflamed by revolutionary ideas resulting from the American and French revolutions and concerned at the general disregard of the international community for the perceived racism of their colonial overlords, Latino nations rose up, forcing the issue of decolonization. Wars of independence in Latin America started in Venezuela—seven of its eastern provinces being first to gain independence from the Spanish in 1811. Paraguay signed its declaration of independence the same year. Argentina followed in 1816, Chile in 1818, Greater Colombia in 1819, Venezuela, Mexico and Peru in 1821. The independence of the Central American isthmus was then quickly, bloodlessly accomplished. Ecuador and Brazil followed in 1822, Brazil receiving its independence from the Portuguese. Then came Uruguay in 1825. The island nation of Cuba, where Columbus made his landfall after the Bahamas, finally gained its independence in 1898.
by Doreen Hemlock: Add Panama to the list of nearby nations seeking buyers in South Florida for its real estate. Some half-dozen Panamanian exhibitors attended the recent International Real Estate Congress and Expo in Coral Gables, offering luxury condominiums in high-rise towers and other properties to buyers seeking lower-cost alternatives to South Florida. High on their target list: U.S. retirees and Baby Boomers soon to retire, who might enjoy a home 2 1/2 hours by jet from Miami in a country that uses the U.S. dollar and where English is widely spoken. The pitch comes amid a boom in construction and real estate in Panama, spurred partly by tax incentives the Central American nation now offers to foreign investors. For example, overseas buyers of new properties for $200,000 and up can obtain resident visas and tax exemptions, Panamanian executives said at the expo. Panama City now plans at least nine high-rise towers, each with at least 56 floors. Plus construction is to start soon on a 101-story tower billed as the tallest in Latin America, said Aracelli de Jaen, vice president of sales for Panama's Tribaldos Real Estate Corp.
By Agustin Gurza, Times Staff Writer: PANAMA has always been a convenient shortcut for travelers on their way somewhere else. The Spaniards used it to haul treasures from Peru. Prospectors used it to race by rail to California for the Gold Rush. And the whole world still uses its canal, the fastest way to move cargo and cruise ships between oceans. Poor Panama. Always a detour, never a destination. But I didn't come here earlier this month to cross the canal or even to look at its locks. I came to explore something that has been as overlooked as the country itself: its music and culture. My guide to this largely undiscovered world was Rubén Blades, Panama's most celebrated pop culture figure. The acclaimed salsa singer and songwriter, who ran unsuccessfully for president here in 1994, now serves as minister of tourism, a job that, like his songs, he has undertaken with creative spirit and a sense of social purpose. Today, he may be the country's second most recognizable name — after Gen. Manuel Noriega. But Blades bristles when reporters ask him about the dictator whom U.S. forces ousted during a military invasion almost 17 years ago. Time to look at Panama in a different light, Blades says.
