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 JULY 2008                                                                                                                               Issue No:  11/2008 

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List of Contents:   
 

Business Opportunities in Panama

§         DHL center opens
§         Caterpillar to build regional corporate HQ in Panama
§         Digicel and America Movil awarded mobile licenses
§         Foreign investment as percentage of GDP is high
 
Panama in the International News
§         Panama Diamond Exchange joins WJFD
§         Chevron to up bunker capacity in Panama
§         Panama Pres Torrijos: Free trade helps alleviate food crisis
        

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN PANAMA  

  

DHL CENTER OPENS

 

DHL, a leading company in the express delivery and logistics business, inaugurated its 8,300 square meters hub at Tocumen International Airport. With an investment of $4.5 M, the facility allows the company to offer services to all of Latin America and has the capacity to handle up to 5,000 packages an hour, which represents a 250% increase in deliveries. The hub will provide capacity needed to respond to a rise in international trade, particularly between the United States and Central America, resulting from recent free trade agreements with service offered in 49 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in Canada.
The facility was designed to optimize space, increase operational and storage areas, and improve airplane departure time by 10 percent. It includes a cold room for storing temperature sensitive packages, a material handling system and a repackaging area. The operations center also includes high security measures, such as a private room to store high-value shipments, ramps that enable packages to be unloaded directly from the plane and security cameras monitored real-time through the Internet, among others.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

 

CATERPILLAR TO BUILD REGIONAL HQ IN PANAMA

 

Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. will build its first Latin American corporate headquarters in Panama, a project slated to cost $25m. Panama President Martin Torrijos and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro witnessed the signing of the contract whereby Panama sold to Caterpillar 100 hectares of land on the Western side of the Panama Canal in the Pacific Panama Special Economic Area on which the firm will build its facility. Caterpillar will build new infrastructure, electric interconnections and a 1-kilometer highway between the community and the firm's installation, which will be located on the site. As part of Caterpillar’s investment in the Panama, the company has already an international call center operating here that employs about 130 people and has trained 700 heavy equipment operators for the efforts to expand the Canal and carry out other infrastructure projects in the country.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

 

DIGICEL AND AMERICA MOVILS AWARDED MOBILE LICENSES

 

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, bid $86 M for one license, beating a $73M 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 and Movistar Panama, a branch of Spain's Telefonica.
Panama, with a population of around 3.2M and an estimated 2.4M existing mobile users, can offer sufficient market opportunities for the two newcomers, said executives of the two companies. Significant investment in Panama is planned to build a world-class network and operation that is set to stimulate growth in the mobile market by increasing mobile penetration within the next five years from approximately 60% to 90%. Digicel is present in Honduras and El Salvador while the win fills a gap in America Movil's coverage in Central America, where the Mexican company operates under the Claro brand in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Costa Rica's telecommunications industry is a state-run monopoly. At the end of the first quarter, America Movil had 159.2 million wireless clients and just over 3.8 million fixed lines in Latin America. Panama's economy is expected to continue to enjoy robust growth in coming years thanks to foreign investment, especially in real estate projects, and the multi-billion dollar expansion of the Panama Canal.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures and in particular in the telecommunications sector, please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

 

FOREIGN INVESTMENT AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP IS HIGH

 

For the second consecutive year, Panama ranked first in foreign investment in Latin America in relation to its gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report by the United Nation's Economic Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The $1.8 Bn Panama received in foreign investment in 2007 represents 10.5% of the country's GDP. That figure puts Panama ahead of such countries as Brazil, Mexico and Chile, although those nations lead the rankings in absolute terms. From that perspective, Panama is in eighth place in regional foreign investment, after Costa Rica. Foreign investment in Latin America and the Caribbean reached record levels in 2007 to $100 Bn.

 

 

PANAMA IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS   

 

 

DHL CENTER OPENS

 
DHL, a leading company in the express delivery and logistics business, inaugurated its 8,300 square meters hub at Tocumen International Airport. With an investment of $4.5 M, the facility allows the company to offer services to all of Latin America and has the capacity to handle up to 5,000 packages an hour, which represents a 250% increase in deliveries. The hub will provide capacity needed to respond to a rise in international trade, particularly between the United States and Central America, resulting from recent free trade agreements with service offered in 49 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in Canada.
The facility was designed to optimize space, increase operational and storage areas, and improve airplane departure time by 10 percent. It includes a cold room for storing temperature sensitive packages, a material handling system and a repackaging area. The operations center also includes high security measures, such as a private room to store high-value shipments, ramps that enable packages to be unloaded directly from the plane and security cameras monitored real-time through the Internet, among others.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

 

CATERPILLAR TO BUILD REGIONAL HQ IN PANAMA

 
Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. will build its first Latin American corporate headquarters in Panama, a project slated to cost $25m. Panama President Martin Torrijos and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro witnessed the signing of the contract whereby Panama sold to Caterpillar 100 hectares of land on the Western side of the Panama Canal in the Pacific Panama Special Economic Area on which the firm will build its facility. Caterpillar will build new infrastructure, electric interconnections and a 1-kilometer highway between the community and the firm's installation, which will be located on the site. As part of Caterpillar’s investment in the Panama, the company has already an international call center operating here that employs about 130 people and has trained 700 heavy equipment operators for the efforts to expand the Canal and carry out other infrastructure projects in the country.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

 

DIGICEL AND AMERICA MOVILS AWARDED MOBILE LICENSES

 
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, bid $86 M for one license, beating a $73M 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 and Movistar Panama, a branch of Spain's Telefonica.
Panama, with a population of around 3.2M and an estimated 2.4M existing mobile users, can offer sufficient market opportunities for the two newcomers, said executives of the two companies. Significant investment in Panama is planned to build a world-class network and operation that is set to stimulate growth in the mobile market by increasing mobile penetration within the next five years from approximately 60% to 90%. Digicel is present in Honduras and El Salvador while the win fills a gap in America Movil's coverage in Central America, where the Mexican company operates under the Claro brand in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Costa Rica's telecommunications industry is a state-run monopoly. At the end of the first quarter, America Movil had 159.2 million wireless clients and just over 3.8 million fixed lines in Latin America. Panama's economy is expected to continue to enjoy robust growth in coming years thanks to foreign investment, especially in real estate projects, and the multi-billion dollar expansion of the Panama Canal.
 
If you are interested in receiving details of business opportunities and commercial ventures and in particular in the telecommunications sector, please contact Ms. Ivette Martinez, imartinez@pmalawyers.com

PATTON, MORENO & ASVAT

 

PANAMÁ
Samuel Lewis Avenue, HSBC Bank Building, 6th Floor P.O. Box 0819 - 05911 ,
Panama, Republic of Panama
Telephone: (507) 264-8044 / (507) 264-8359
Fax: (507) 263-7887 / (507) 263-7038
E-mail: info@pmalawyers.com

 

LONDON

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London W1S 4PY
England
Telephone: +44 (207) 491-9200
Fax: +44 (207) 629-6933
E-mail: infolondon@pmalawyers.com

 

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

Palm Chambers, 197 Main Street
P.O. Box 3174 Road Town Tortola
British Virgin Islands
Telephone: (284) 494-4694
Fax: (284) 494-7153
E-mail: infobvi@pmalawyers.com

 

THE BAHAMAS

Atlantic House, 3rd. Floor
2nd. Terrace and Collins Avenue
P.O. Box N-8308 Nassau,Bahamas
Telephone: (242) 323-7585
Fax: (242) 323-7284
E-mail: infobah@pmalawyers.com

 

URUGUAY

Juncal 1378, Office Number 407
Between Plaza Independencia and Rincón
Montevideo, Uruguay
Telephone: (598) 2 902-7277
Fax: (598) 2 902-7278
E-mail: infouruguay@pmalawyers.com

 

BELIZE

60 Market Square
Belize City
Belize
Telephone: (501) 227-0263
Fax: (501) 227-0265
E-mail: infobelize@pmalawyers.com

 

ANGUILLA

201 Rogers Office Building
Edwin Wallace Rey Drive
George Hill, Anguilla
Telephone: (264) 498-5858
Fax: (264) 497-5504
E-mail: infoanguilla@pmalawyers.com
 

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