Private sector propose a US$4 billion plan to reactivate Panama

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Panama’s private sector presented this Monday to the Government a reactivation plan that proposes investments for US$4 billion to generate in the short term 208,000 direct and indirect jobs and boost the economy, which collapsed 17.9% in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The Executive of the Panamanian President, Laurentino Cortizo, affirmed that “many” of the 47 proposals that integrate the plan of the private sector “are complementary with the recovery plan that the Government executes,” reason why a “high-level commission” was formed between both sectors to promote the initiatives.

“The global amount of investment of the 47 proposals is estimated at US$4 billion, with an approximate generation of 140,000 direct jobs and 68,000 indirect jobs”, stated a communiqué of the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep).

The Council, which brings together the different business leaders of the country, explained that 16 of the proposals presented are of a transversal nature, and 21 are sectorial for the energy, financial, industrial, construction, agriculture, and tourism sectors.

The private sector plan proposes complementary public initiatives with an emergency schedule of small investments of less than US$10,000 per township for the immediate generation of local employment.

A HIGH-LEVEL COMMISSION FOR THE REACTIVATION OF THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY

The Government presided by Cortizo affirmed that together with the main private sector associations headed by Conep “agreed to form a High-Level Commission to facilitate and provide support, support, analysis, evaluation, implementation and follow up of proposals for the economic reactivation of the country.”

The representative of the businessmen in the high-level commission is the president of Conep, Julio de la Lastra, while for the Government are the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Ramón Martínez, and the Secretary of the Public-Private Association, Saleh Asvat Cortizo, who described as “very reasonable” the proposals of the private sector, “many of which are complementary to the Economic Recovery Plan that the National Government has been implementing since the beginning of the pandemic,” indicated an official communiqué.

Panama’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 17.9% in 2020 and economic activity by 14.6% last January due to restrictions to curb covid-19, which in more than a year has sickened 360,841 people and caused the death of 6,188 in the country.

More than 20,000 companies canceled the notice of operation between January 2020 and March 2021, while unemployment climbed from 7.1 % in 2019 to 18.5 % last September, and informality rose to more than 52 %.

The vaccination against the coronavirus, a process that began last January 20 and in which at least 564,725 doses of Pfizer’s preparation have already been applied, is a fundamental piece in the economic recovery, both authorities and private sector executives have said.

The Executive projects that the economy will grow between 4.5 % and 5 % of the GDP this year, when from this second quarter it expects to advance more rapidly in the vaccination against covid, while multilateral organizations such as the World Bank expect an expansion of 9.9 % of the GDP this 2021.