Considering the population of the country this seems like a large number of new businesses and it indicates a strong entrepreneurial spirit among the inhabitants. It includes every type of business from the small kiosk to the large conglomerates. As the article points out, the number of new businesses registered is greater, but their capital investment is 50% lower than in 2008, reflecting a slowing economy. The portal for registering companies is seen as a major advantage in the registering of the companies, but the ministry of commerce says that it has canceled over 4000 permits due to lack of payment or false data provided during registration. I sounds like some folks in Panama are using the registry portal as they did the 911 emergency number just to agitate the state.
La Prensa
Ettrick light
lettrick@prensa.com lettrick@prensa.com
Through the electronic portal PanamaEmprende this year there have been created 17 thousand 696 new companies with investment plans that reach a one billion 235 million dollars.
Panama is the province that is leading the charge in relation to the creation of new enterprises. It is followed further back Chiriqui and Colon.
The operating permits processed during the first nine months of 2009 are higher than those recorded last year, but the amount of reported investment fell 49%.
Perhaps this answers the precautionary climate that prevailed in making business decisions during the past year due to the global crisis.
For William Gonzalez, director general of Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici), an agency that administers PanamaEmprende, the drop in investment was declared last year as it processed the entry of larger companies with greater capital.
Gonzalez says the tourism sector is one of the most dynamic features. Several companies offer the service of tourist guides and tour operators have requested notice of operation to meet demand that is generated in the market.
Some industries also have new members. "This shows that certain businesses are relocating," said first deputy chairman of Union of Industrialists, Ricardo Sotelo.
The employer believes the new industrial development bill currently being discussed in the National Assembly will help this sector to create new businesses and jobs.
Cancellation
While generating new business, Mici has also canceled operating permits.
To date, the institution has canceled 4,335 operations for various reasons. Among the most frequent violations is the registration of false information in the system.
Cancellations are also related to clarification of the data, because sometimes there exist in the system business registrations which never began operations.
