TGIF! It has been another very busy day, and we have some more good news to report. In all honesty,
I did not believe we could have made this much headway in only three days, considering the fact that the legislative assembly is going on a two month recess tonight and the free trade agreement was signed yesterday, pulling many officials to Washington. But we were favored with a lot of support, especially from you the reader and participant in the survey. "The book" as we affectionatly call it, was the key to our success. It will not soon be forgotten by those who got to see it, and Paul and I, who lugged it all over the city from one meeting to the next. I am sure they will be used as door stops at the various ministries as a reminder of the power of a united voice of the market.
Now for Paul's report.
Friday Update
It’s been less than a week since we starting receiving responses to our Internet survey and we’ve already achieved some spectacular results. Our sources in the Assembly have informed us that legislation is being introduced to return the length of stay for the tourist visa to 90-days (without requiring an extension) and issuing a temporary extension of the 20-year tax exemption on new property until December 31st, 2007. We have assurances that it has the full support of the President along with his cabinet.
See more below.
Steven Covey – Bringing prosperity to all of Panama
Early this morning, Sam and I, along with the team from Prima Panama, attended a special forum hosted by Steven Covey, world renowned speaker and author of the best selling book 7 Secrets of Highly Effective People.
The theme of the conference was “A Prosperous Panama for All” and focused on ways to reduce poverty and empower people to improve their lives. This topic is extremely important here in Panama since the poverty rate is high, particularly in the indigenous regions. The forum featured prominent Panamanian speakers and showcased ways the business community can work with local communities to make measurable improvements in the quality of live for their residents. We were proud to be one of the sponsors of this event and we strongly believe that this is an important message for the future of Panama.
Working lunch with the legal team.
During our meeting with Vice President Samuel Lewis yesterday he requested that we meet with our attorneys and review immigration and legal framework for resolving the tourist visa problem from our perspective. Understanding the importance of this, we met at lunch with several of our attorneys that specialize in immigrations matters. We discussed the problem at length and will be submitting our proposed solution to the Vice President on Monday. Sam and the immigration legal team.
The Ministry of Government and Justice – Where the immigration issue began
Mr. Fredrik Nordstom at the Panama Institute of Tourism was truly instrumental in arranging meetings for us with many of the important ministries involved with the new tourist visa regulation. One of the most important meetings that Mr. Nordstrom arranged was with Danilo Toro, Director of Internal Security, at the Ministry of Government and Justice. Mr. Toro was on the committee that recommended the change to the tourist visa law. We met with Mr. Toro this afternoon and explained to him the problems our members have with the reduction in stay included in the new tourist visa. After reviewing the results of our study, Mr. Toro completely agreed with our assessment of the situation and assured us that the Ministry of Government would not oppose the reinstatement of the 90-day tourist visa if introduced by the Assembly.
International concerns
Yesterday, Mr. Timothy Lattimer of the US Embassy invited Sam and I to an informal meeting of several local ambassadors held this afternoon at the Hotel Intercontinental. Several of the embassies are receiving complaints from their citizens about unethical treatment when investing in Panama and these meetings are a way to share crucial information. Sam and I were invited to present the results of our recent efforts and to offer our help in acting as an advocate for foreign citizens experiencing problems in the real estate industry. Photo; Sam and a number of Ambassadors and consulate members.
Another helpful hand in the government
During the Steven Covey conference we ran into David Saied, communications director for the Ministry of Finance. David was one of the featured speakers at the event and has an incredible understanding of the nuances of the Panamanian economy. David’s opinion is very important so we asked if we could meet in the evening to discuss the problems we’re having with taxes, immigrations issues and regulations. David agreed and we met for nearly two hours. He understood the consequences of the recent changes to the tourist visa and vowed to give us his support to correct the situation and look into the other issues we brought up.
Your voices are heard
If you’ve been following this blog over the past few days you’ve probably noticed many of the photographs in the articles included a big white binder in the picture. This binder contained an executive summary of our data, graphs of the survey results, several letters from investors and developers and a summary of our proposed solutions. And, we included over 800 individual pages of answers and comments from our readers. This information completely filled a 3” binder and weighed about 10 pounds. We hand delivered 15 copies of this information to several government agencies, members of the media and a host of other people we felt could help us affect change. Needless to say, it made an impressive sight.
We got the binder into the hands of Vice President Samuel Lewis. This undoubtedly helped him see the unintended effect the changes in immigrations policy had on many of our readers. Ricardo Martinelli, an opposition presidential candidate, received a copy last night and made this one of the main topics on his television show this morning. The effect of the information we provided these people was immediate and effective.
We are very pleased to say, as a result of your voices and your input on our survey, we have achieved results much faster than we expected. We received a call this evening from an influential Assembly member to say that both the tourist visa regulations and the 20-year tax exemption were going to be addressed in a special session of the legislature scheduled during mid-July. We have been told that the tourist visa will be extended back to the previous 90-day policy (without the need of extensions) and the 20-year tax exemption will be valid until December 31st, 2007. This action will give us time to thoroughly address the concerns of the government, private industry and you, our clients, to ensure that the final legislation will be fair and equitable for everyone involved. Simply stated, this is great news. As soon as the new laws are passed, we will post the information immediately.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in government of Panama that took the time to meet with us. We appreciated both the time spent and the careful consideration given to us during the meetings.
We would also like to thank the other community members whose phone calls, emails and personal time were instrumental in achieving these results.
Although this has been a successful effort on the part of everyone involved, the work continues. The important point to remember is that your voices were heard. This is a powerful and effective tool and we will continue use your voices to make sure that Panama remains the paradise that we all desire.
Paul McBride, CEO
Prima Panama, S.A.
