The Ambassador of the Republic of Panama, H.E. Mr. Willys Delvalle.
By Roy Lie Atjam.
The Hague, 13 November 2018. The Ambassador of the Republic of Panama, H.E. Mr. Willys Delvalle and Mrs. Tatiana Delvalle, invited fellow Heads of Mission, members of the business community, Dutch government representatives, members of the International institutions and various others to the Marriott Hotel on the occasion of Panama’s 115th year of Independence.
In his welcome speech, Ambassador Willys Delvalle welcomes one and all on behalf of the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, to the celebration of the 115th years of the Republic of Panama. Special thanks to the Netherlands for being such a wonderful host and to all those who have contributed to the longstanding friendship between the nations of Panama and the Netherlands. An extract of Ambassador Willys Delvalle ‘s discourse is hereto attached:
“During the last years, Panama has made great efforts to fulfil the 2030 Global Development Agenda, we are completely committed to building a better country and improve the quality of life for our citizens, and this needs to be done both locally as well globally.
In this regard, the Government of Panama is heavily investing to make the most of its national programs aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Many initiatives have been created towards achieving these goals. New alliances with different stakeholders are ongoing, creating opportunities in areas such as housing, preventive health, innovation, infrastructure, training for small and medium-sized enterprises, among many others.
Recently our President approved the Law that creates the Permanent Multisector Council on Education, an advisory board for the implementation of the National Commitments to improve education at all levels. Education, as all of you know, is a critical area for any country to improve the quality of their people.
We have reached historical progress in terms of Gender Equality; with the approval of the Law that establishes a 30% participation of women in public institution boards, we adopted the UN Gender Equality Seal for Public and Private Organizations as well as Panama was the first Latin American country to join the Equal Pay International Coalition, last summer.
Furthermore, our Government recently launched the National Council for Gender Parity, aiming to coordinate and generate synergies among all the actors of society, public and private sectors and non-governmental organizations, all of them working together, enforcing and committing with open spaces for gender equality.
I’m also pleased to announce that we are part of the International Gender Champions – The Hague Hub as a way to join efforts and actors from this city.
Now as a country what else do we have to offer the world?
Well, Panama is committed to the mission that our geographical position has given us, therefore we are continuously working to strengthen the Great Connection, a global hub for people, commerce and connectivity and a key destination for business and investment.
So, what does The Great Connection mean:
- Best active ports in Latin America in 2017: For several years now, Panama has led the region on container moves in the Atlantic coast and the third most active in the Pacific coast.
- Air Connectivity: With more than 132,000 direct flights annually to 90 destinations in 35 countries. Tocumen International Airport is the best connected of Latin America, establishing direct connections to all the major cities and capitals on the continent, reaching Europe and beyond, and moving more than 15 million passengers last year. The New Terminal will be open in January 2019, which will add a capacity for another 10 million passengers and this new terminal will also have the first multimodal logistics zone in Latin America, allowing not only faster movement of visitors and cargo but also providing value-added services to improve world trade.
- Multinational Headquarters Hub: more than 140 companies have chosen Panama to carry out operations or services for their Main Offices, subsidiary or affiliate in other countries. These headquarters have invested more than 800 million American dollars.
- Broad tourism destinations in Panama: In 2017 the international tourist arrivals had a total of 2,5 million visitors(5.8%), this represented a touristic income of $ 6.8 billion. Infrastructure all over the country, highways, new bridges over the Canal, construction and expansion of the metro lines, mega ports, etc.
The Great Connection also means, Panama Canal. Some recent facts of the Panama Canal show the progress made as:
- The Panama Canal closed its 2018 fiscal year (FY 2018) with a record tonnage of 442.1 million Panama Canal tons (PC/UMS), which represents a 9.5 percent increase from the previous year.
- This means that the Panama Canal continues to exceed our expectations, creating new routes for new markets and new commodities, reinforcing every day the importance of the waterway’s expansion on the global maritime trade.
- Likewise, its expected to receive approximately 234 cruise ships through the Panamax and Neopanamax Locks during the upcoming 2018-2019 cruise season.
- Through this route 14,000 vessels move around per year, which accounts for roughly 6% of world trade and generates revenues for more than 3 billion dollars a year.
To enhance the Great Connection, we are facing a new challenge, the Agro Logistic Hub. Creating and exploring new processes for value-added agricultural products. And our friends in the Netherlands are a key for the success of this new development area.
Our projections towards the future lead us to consolidate alliances, for this reason, every day we are strengthening the excellent relations with the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The high level of bilateral relations allowed for a successful visit by President Juan Carlos Varela to the Netherlands early this year.
As a result, the leaders agreed to broaden the work agendas and establish cooperation in the areas of agro-logistic, connectivity and water management. In order to learn more from local good practices, Panama recently opened the First Agro-business Office for Europe based in Rotterdam, with a strategic purpose: promote our national high-quality seal of our products” Panama Exporta”.
Panama and the Caribbean.
Panamastands ready for closer cooperation with CARICOM
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Thursday 13 September 2018 formalised diplomatic ties with Panama, accrediting the first Ambassador of the Central American country to the Community.
According to the recently accredited first envoy of Panama to CARICOM, H.E.Ms. Soraya Cano Franco, Panama’s policies have facilitated the growth of the economy and have allowed the country to, among other things, “evolve from being a receiving cooperation country to a cooperation provider country”
We want to thank all of you, we deeply appreciate and are honored to be able to celebrate our 115th anniversary. ¡VIVA PANAMÁ!”.
The celebration continued with the sampling of typical Panamanian dishes such as: Appetizer: Empanadas de queso (fried corn pastry filled with white cheese) RopaVieja (beef stew with vegetables)
Arroz con guandúl (rice with guandúl beans).
Plátanos en tentación (caramelized ripe plantain with cinnamon).
It has been a fabulous Panamanian evening.
