Monday
Monday 29th July 2024.
July 28, 2024
The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap), Juan Alberto Arias S., called for a general institutional strengthening that will allow the country to be organized, in order to create a climate of confidence to attract new investments and strengthen those already in the country.
In a statement, Arias said that they have “received businessmen from different parts of the world interested in knowing what is happening in the country and the plans for the coming months,” seeking to make this a starting point for the country to be perceived as “a safe harbor for their capitals.”
The executive said that this is done with the aim of translating this trust into investments that boost the Panamanian economy and create new jobs that benefit Panamanians.
He said that in the elections of May 5, the country sent a loud, clear and unequivocal message: “we want change!” That change, he added, must be reflected through a true separation of powers and “a consonant action of transparency, ethics, accountability and focused on the collective and not the individual interest of those who make up the three organs of the State.”
According to Arias, trust will be strengthened to the extent that the three State bodies govern “with honest and responsible people, whose actions demonstrate that they have heard this demand for change in favor of a majority.”
The administration of the Social Security Fund (CSS) , headed by director Enrique Lau Cortés , is in the sights of the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino , and the National Assembly, especially in relation to the recently awarded hemodialysis tender for an amount of $178.2 million.
At the weekly press conference, Mulino said: “I just hope that it is well done, so that the CSS has better days.”
He also mentioned that he is waiting for the completion of the process of appointing union representatives to the board of directors of the entity, so that their ratification can be carried out. The objective is to have, between September and October, a new director of the CSS to sit down with the Minister of Health to define the work schedule.
Another point addressed by the president is that there is a serious problem in the digitalization of information at the CSS , which prevents data from being cross-checked and causes delays in the processes.
Mulino’s two priorities for the CSS will be the Disability, Old Age and Death Fund (IVM) program, medical care and surgical arrears.
Last week, the National Assembly also approved summoning the director of the CSS to provide explanations and answer six questions regarding the tender for “hemodialysis services and supply of hemodialysis kits, as well as the design, construction and installation of hemodialysis units,” awarded on July 19.
The summons was proposed by the deputy of the Alianza party, Osman Gómez, who pointed out that last Monday, July 22, a group of patients with chronic renal failure (members of the National Association of Patients with Chronic Renal Failure-Anpircf) went to the National Assembly to present their complaint, since the director of the CSS had not attended to them.
Another patient organization that is requesting courtroom access in the National Assembly is the Dialysis Patients Group (Grupadi), which agrees with the awarding of the tender, since they believe that it will guarantee the correct maintenance and proper functioning of the existing hemodialysis units, in addition to the new units, which will use 528 machines with the capacity to serve more than 3,000 patients per month.
This group of patients is expected to be seen by a group of deputies from the National Assembly on Monday, July 29.
The mayor of the Municipality of Panama , Mayer Mizrachi, has denounced that only 48 of the 165 cameras in the Municipal Video Surveillance Operations Center are operational . This security system is intended to supervise, observe, monitor and coordinate inter-institutional actions to guarantee the safety of residents and visitors of the district.
Mayer made this complaint public on her social network X, and even mentioned that, as an example, a parking lot of a private shopping center has a total of 450 cameras for security.
The Municipal Operations Center , in operation since 2017, has the capacity to detect and record anomalies that occur in the district, with the aim of sharing said information with the corresponding institutions to resolve the identified problems. Among the most frequent cases detected through this surveillance system are drinking water leaks, garbage accumulation, traffic congestion, among others.
It has been reported that the surveillance cameras installed at strategic points in all districts are not operational due to lack of maintenance, and some are pending repairs. These tasks were stalled during the administration of José Luis Fábrega (2019-2024).
Through the social network X, Jacques Fandor , representative of the company in charge of the CCTV software of the Monitoring Center of the Municipality of Panama, explained that the main problem lies in the lack of support from the center for more than four years, for which he requested an approach with the new authorities. In this sense, the director of Municipal Security, Ezequiel Carrizo Jurado, is responsible for the management and supervision of this system. José Luis Fábrega, former mayor of the capital, said on Panama en Directo that the contract for the video surveillance cameras was “leonine” and that it was inherited from the administration of José Isabel Blandón (2014-2019). “If we had terminated the contract, we would have been left without cameras, since the optical fiber did not belong to the Municipality of Panama,” he said.
The National Police reported this Saturday that after a raid on a residence in the Pueblo Nuevo district, Panama district, $54,300 in counterfeit cash was seized.
The investigation, conducted by National Police officers and officials from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, was carried out for the alleged commission of a crime against public security.
According to authorities, as part of the investigation, 420 $100 bills printed on both sides and 123 $100 bills printed on only one side were seized.
No arrests were reported, while investigations into the incident are being carried out.
The possible inscription of the so-called Trans-Isthmus Colonial Route on the prestigious list of World Heritage Sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will have to wait at least one more year.
The landmark proposal, which has been in the works for about 10 years, was discussed at a World Heritage Committee meeting in New Delhi, India, but some aspects of the proposal were recommended to be amended.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the World Heritage Committee decided to return the nomination file for the Trans-Isthmus Colonial Route to correct eight points related to the management, conservation and research of the first phase, which connects the registered colonial sites in the Atlantic and Pacific.
It is important to remember that the Trans-Isthmus Colonial Route of Panama is made up of a group of sites interrelated by their cultural and historical value. These are: the archaeological site of Panama Viejo, the fortifications on the Caribbean coast of Panama (Portobelo and San Lorenzo), the Camino Real, the Camino de Cruces and a large part of the Old Town in San Felipe.
“Panama will receive the file sent by the World Heritage Committee to process the request for correction of the proposal, prior to the inscription of the Trans-Isthmus Colonial Route on the World Heritage List, in compliance with the request made by UNESCO,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated.
This new proposal for a historic route arose after UNESCO considered that the coastal strip 3, built in 2014, had caused “irreversible damage” to the Panama Viejo-Casco Antiguo monumental complex.
In fact, this international organization indicated in past reports that the marine section of the coastal strip affected the “relationship of the Old Town with the sea,” one of the exceptional universal values that were taken into account by UNESCO to declare this site a World Heritage Site in 1997.
These amendments include: granting legal protection to the entire heritage route as a single entity and granting legal protection to the Camino de Cruces and the Camino Real as cultural heritage. That is, creating rules or regulations for these places.
The government has suggested that the correct way to achieve the objective of inscribing this historic site on the World Heritage List is to “comply” with the decision, which was taken in New Delhi on the recommendation of the World Heritage Centre.
Panamanian gymnast Hillary Heron made her dream come true this Sunday, with a great performance in her debut at the Olympic Games, in the third subdivision of individual artistic gymnastics, at the Bercy Arena .
At Paris 2024, Heron looked captivating in a turquoise jersey, wearing number 375; she was accompanied by OK An Chang ( North Korea), Luisa Blanco (Colombia) and Filipa Martins (Portugal). In the end, she would accumulate 50.765 points adding up the four apparatus.
Additionally, Heron made history by becoming the first gymnast other than Simone Biles to do a Biles 1 at the Olympics .
With this performance her participation ended, but she was very close to qualifying for the All Around , placing 44th. The last spot was obtained by the Colombian Luis Blanco, who accumulated a score of 51.698.
The Isthmus native began her participation in the vault apparatus, third in the rotation, in which she performed twice in her quest to qualify for the final.
Heron , 20, would do an extended twist and a half on the first attempt, while on the second she performed a Yurchenko . This performance earned her a score of 13.650.
“This is a dream come true, fulfilling Hillary’s dream of four years. I left to leave the country on a high note. I am excited about what is next in my career,” Heron said in an interview with Deportes RPC .