maritime

New maritime strategy in the works at AMP

The previous strategic plan, approved in 2004, lacked a logistics component.

An AMP workshop aims to generate a new strategy proposal for Executive approval.

LA PRENSA

integrated system. The railroad is a key part of Panama's logistical operations involving the swift and economical transportation of cargo.976774

After four years of implementing its current national maritime strategy, the government is preparing a restatement of its plans in order to convert Panama into a comprehensive logistics center.

Execution of the earlier strategy, which was approved by the Cabinet in 2004, is 80 percent complete, said the secretary of the Autoridad Marítima de Panamá (AMP), Carlos Ernesto González De La Lastra. That strategy focussed on five components: merchant shipping, interoceanic transit, maritime transshipments, coastal exploitation, and maritime jurisdiction, but it lacked the logistics element, De La Lastra said.

As part of an initiative by the administrator of the Autoridad Marítima de Panamá (AMP), Fernando Solórzano, a workshop on the new strategy will be help at the end of March with representatives from the offices of Immigration, Customs, the Colón free zone, Howard, Tocumen Airport and others. "We are going to present a draft to these different groups and pass on our recommendations to President Martín Torrijos," De La Lastra said.

The idea of reformulating strategy stems from concerns of the industry itself. In an earlier analysis of the situation, Ricard Sánchez, head of the Comisión Económica para América Latina (CEPAL), recognized that "the Canal expansion is the catalyst for a new country, which requires a new maritime strategy." As Sánchez remarked, "the country has exceeded the minimum threshold required to make a qualitative and quantitative leap in the type of services it can provide."