>The Peruvians have had gold as their natural wealth; the Chileans, copper; and the Venezuelans and Mexicans, petroleum. In our case it has been our geographical position and the Panama Canal.
>This article has been written by a well-known member of the Panama maritime community, Mr. Ruben Karamñites. He is General Manager of Crowley Liner Transport and a leading member of the Panama Chamber of Shipping.
From the year 2000, the Canal is being handled and administered by Panamanians, with responsibility and transparency, with very well calculated and studied risks, without economically commiting the future of our generations, on the contrary, serving as the basis for our social and economic development.
The Panama Canal has a tremendous commitment and a great social and economic responsibility to the country as much as it has to continue being projected internationally to the vanguard of development in the maritime world and must walk hand in hand with the demands of the sector. For this reason, it has to keep investing in maintenance and making the necessary modernization changes to the Canal, that would allow it to provide a good service and timely get an economical benefit, in view of the imminent world cargo growth.
The growth of cargo worldwide, the globalization, the consolidation of capitals and the worldwide development of the maritime industry, will keep its dynamics of constant changes and Panama must be ready to offer modern services through the Canal, modern port and Free Zone installations, to satisfy the needs and demands of the users, and the growing demand of the Canal service, otherwise another will offer it.
Consequently, to comply with all this, what is demanded and required is a constant modernization of our maritime resources and the Panama Canal; otherwise another will take the lead.
The International Maritime Community, the international commercial trade and the world in general are watching us, they are waiting to see what will be the position of the Panamanians and they recognize that the Canal has importance in world development and the movement of cargo.
>KEY ARGUMENTS THAT ARE CAUSING CRISIS AND SUPPORT THE URGENT NEED OF IMMEDIATE ENLARGEMENT OF THE CANAL.
>• The Canal structures are now more than 90 years old, and throughout their history they have required large investments for their maintenance and operation.
• The Panama Canal has maintained for years an average daily transit of 38 ships, and as a result of its structural limitations, it has not been able to grow more.
• The Panama Canal continues confronting a problem of service to ships that have to expect an average of 10 days delay in order to transit the Canal, especially during the period of locks maintenance. At some periods the Canal has had up to 119 ships waiting to transit and for this year, the maximum has been 110 ships.
• There are limitations and lack of expansion in certain critical areas for transit that permit a safe flowed of adequate traffic.
• There is a need to improve the lighting in certain areas that help in an effective way to improve the visibility on the Canal route.
• Tie-up stations are urgently needed.
• The Panama Canal at present does not have a real answer in the face of the growing demand of services to satisfy the new business opportunities that present themselves, through the development of the Post-panamax ships.
• There are various countries of the region that are studying alternatives to the Panama Canal and they are directing themselves to the International Community, tending toward improving the offer of the Canal and they are determined to participate in the movement of international cargo from the Atlantic to Pacific and vice versa. Among those that can be mentioned are the United States of America, Mexico and Canada, that are revising their systems of land transport (highways and railroads). It is worth adding that Nicaragua has been promoting the Asian interests that they explore/revise the idea of a canal through Nicaraguan territory, an idea that was born during the colonial era and that has remained in the Nicaraguan mind. On the other hand, Guatemala plans to modernize its system of land transportation (highways and railroad). All these initiatives and innovative projects compete directly with the Panama Canal. If we do not act swiftly and intelligently to protect our resource and the Canal business by improving its service, modernizing it and its installations and developing the project of enlargement of the Canal and to capture the growth of cargo moved on pos-panamax vessels, to offer a better service to its users, otherwise we will end up with the ” star product “ gradually becoming known as a ” product in decline ” .
Concerning the Plan of Disclosure of the Panama Canal Enlargement Project, it is important to take up the subject again in the country, to answer the great number of doubts that exists on this project in many sectors of the Panamanian population!!!. This requires immediate work by an able official:
>• He must adjust the form of the speech to give the Panamanian an adequate and simple explanation, by knowing and identifying the doubts in the different areas of the project.
• Invest in a more massive publicity to give to give more disclosure to the project.
• The project needs to be presented in all the forums and discussions to cover all the objections, even if they are unfavorable to the project or if they seem insignificant, this must be a 24 hours job. Here are some of the objections, which from my point of view, does not represent firm arguments and are easy to clarify and explain to the community, but they are points of view and opinions adversed to the project that have been spread out:
>A. ” It is not the moment to carry out the Project of Enlargement ” .
B. ” One must wait (1) a year more ” . more?
C. ” One must wait 10 to 15 years or more ” , and that ” we only need to develop the projects of modification of the critical areas and to give greater expansion to the waterway.
This is sufficient ” .
D. ” The environmental aspect ” .
E. ” The hydrographic basin will be affected, diminishing the supply of water for the country ” .
F. ” How it is established that the project of enlargement will generate 40,000 jobs? “ and ” How can they assure that it will give jobs to so many Panamanians? ” ” How many reigners will be employed for the work? “
G. ” We believe that the project will cost much more than the amount presented by the Canal; the financing of the project will cause debt problems to the country for the oans that will be requested to the banks; these economic resources from the Canal that will be used to develop the project could better be used to make more roads, homes, and schools for the Panamanians ” .
This Enlargement Project can not wait, it includes the third set of locks, the modification of the critical areas and the Canal widening. This is the time to do it, becase it is foreseen that for 2014, present Canal will be reaching its maximum capacity and according to the projections of the studies, we are now just in time to begin the enlargement project. We urgently need to increase our offer capacity to capture the growth of the worldwide cargo and to provide a better service to the Canal users. The more the project is delayed, the more expensive it will be, the competitive threads increases and the business opportunities are reduced.
The existence of over 23 environmental and archaeological researches; the derogation of Law No. 44, in which finally the creation of damming to increase the volume of water in the Canal; the projects of water administration; the deepen of the route through dredging, to guarantee the way of the vessels of greater draft, were discarded. The evaluation of this environmental theme is link to the cost benefit of the project for the Panamanian State.
The doubt that exists in the labor area related to the quantity of jobs for Panamanians, is directly related to the satisfaction of their needs and the domino effect that the project will have in the national economy. The expectations could be exceeded, if we do not trained the Panamanian labor force to the future, when the development projects in the construction (hotels, casinos, roads, condominiums, office buildings, etc.) juxtapose with the project of the Canal Enlargement and beware that we are going to end bringing manual or skilled labor to face the job demand (same as it happened during the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904). We all have to be ready for the great quantity of jobs that will arise in all labor areas, both vocational and professional. The Panama Canal Enlargment Project will resolve the home economical needs of all Panamanians, who will have a job. Panamanians only want to see that they will really have a job and will directly receive the economic benefit of their effort. Any other argument exceeds their humble interest.
The project financing, as well as its real impact in the national economy, must be fully clarified and discussed. It is true that the themes have been explained and that we can be sure that the project is self financeable/sustainable, with a projection of conviction to the Panamanians, directed to the human development and to improve the Panamanians quality of life.
If you do not understand the range of the role the Panama Canal must play in the 21 Century for a globalized world, then it is time to know it. The changes that Panama will face after the Referendum of October 22, 2006, are deep and will be at other level, directed to the complete development. This is the most relevant project developed in the Republic of Panama and in all the region, after the construction of the Panama Canal (1904/1914), which will change our future for the benefit of all Panamanians and the International Trade.
>” Panama it is your Canal, modernize it ” ” The Enlargement of the Canal will be for your future development ” ” Be prepared for this development “
http://www.bulletinpa.com/index.php?id=713
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Source: VIP Panama
July 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
the Panamanian Govt. fears its income will fall if ships owner switch to alternative routes, some Panamanian Unions oppose the building project, claiming more money should be spent on social Devt. This is the canal’s biggest expansion since it opened by the united states. Before it is executed, the project must go to binding referendum held on Oct. 22, 2006.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Before deciding whether this is the time to undertake such an enormous venture, all aspects of this major initiative deserve to be examined and then re-examined. While the government boasts that the project will generate a vast number of jobs for its large numbers of unemployed citizens to its expansion Of the Panama Canal , many Panamanians are coming to the conclusion that canal expansion may not be in their best interest at this time.