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Port movement at Panama’s Pacific terminals has doubled, generating greater challenges in daily operations.

In fiscal year 2015, before the inauguration of the new locks, the Panama Canal recorded 758 port movements of container vessels of neopanamax and panamax plus dimensions, in the Pacific. By fiscal year 2021, the figure was 1,628 port movements of vessels with these dimensions.

For the next months of 2022, it is projected that the increase in maritime freight rates will continue as a consequence of the demand for transportation in the midst of the pandemic.

The Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama appealed to the will and discipline of the population, to continue moving towards national recovery and reactivation. “Maintaining and respecting the established biosecurity measures, and continuing with the successful vaccination process, which now includes children between 5 and 11 years old, has allowed us to move towards better days in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the arrival of the Omicron variant represents a new challenge in this fight”, said the association.

Panama put on climate diplomacy to achieve articulation with countries in the region such as Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, the formation of new “blue leaders” that have 30% of their respective marine protected areas. “The goal is that the four countries become blue leaders, the four presidents are committed”, said in an interview with Efe the Panamanian Foreign Minister, Erika Mouynes, in the framework of her visit to the Ecuadorian archipelago to attend the signing of the decree of expansion of the Galapagos marine reserve.

The number of construction and new project plans increased in 2021 with respect to the two previous years. A report from the Single Window Directorate of the Ministry of Housing and Territorial Planning (Miviot) revealed that 104 construction plans and 185 preliminary projects were approved. The 104 construction plan procedures represent 21 thousand 10 housing solutions, which reflects an increase of 25 more procedures than in 2020 and 38 more procedures compared to 2019.

At a time when Covid-19 cases continue to rise in the country, the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap) urged this Sunday, January 16, the authorities to continue the “timely review” of isolation times for those infected and quarantine for their direct contacts.According to the association, the guidelines proposed by international epidemiological research centers such as the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) should be adopted. “This is important for Panama to be able to face the new wave of contagions, without impacting, once again, the functioning of the daily activities of the society”, the Chamber pointed out.

The plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice, by means of Agreement No. 664 of December 23, 2021, established that all judicial, support and administrative personnel of the Judicial Branch must submit a statement of assets.The agreement gives a term from January 17 to January 31 of this same month, for the officials working in the judicial and administrative offices of the public defense and defenders of the victims of crime, to complete electronically in their profile of the Integral System of Human Resources Management, the form of sworn statement of assets.

In its October 2021 Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) publication series, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), indicates that urban planners and specialists face numerous challenges when they must propose, design and implement UGI solutions, especially when their clients are local and national governments. Part of the reason for this is that there is a lack of knowledge of the existing solutions to achieve this.

The plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) declared vacant the positions of 266 district public defenders, circuit public defenders and crime victim defenders. This measure was adopted through agreements No. 23 and No. 25 of this Thursday and seeks to fill the positions through the procedures established through the Judicial Career. The measure reaches 193 circuit public defenders, 2 district public defenders and 71 crime victim defenders.

The Panama Passport Authority (APAP) requested applicants for its services to go to the entity unaccompanied, except when the presence of both parents is indispensable, as in the case of passport applications for minors. The request is due to the fact that several positive cases of covid-19 have been detected among its collaborators.This was set forth in Cabinet Decree No. 31 published in the Official Digital Gazette No. 29452-A, this Tuesday, January 11, 2022, in the midst of the fourth wave of the covid-19 pandemic that the country is experiencing.