Martinelli was born in Panama on March 11, 1952. In 1973, he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Fayetteville in Arkansas. He later earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the INCAE Business School in Costa Rica.
He served as director of the Social Security from 1994 to 1996 in the government of then President Ernesto Perez Balladares. From September 1999 to January 2003, during the presidency of Mireya Moscoso, he served as minister for canal affairs and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Authority.
Martinelli is currently chairman of the board of Panama's Super 99 supermarkets chain and chairman of two other companies. He also sits on the boards of at least eight other companies.
It is very important that we have Martinelli as a president. Ricardo Martinelli is a businessman, he is business oriented, and he has been very successful in his career. Sales were nearly a half a billion dollars last year at his Super 99 supermarket chain. He has a vision, a different vision than most presidents. While we have had a history with a lot of corruption, which is rampant in all Latin America, Martinelli has said “No, we aren’t going to steal any money, we are going to work and make government efficient.” Martinelli will be successful in making government efficient, and Panama has an opening to be a first world economy.
Martinelli’s strong leadership will insure the continuation of Panama’s growth even in the current economic climate. Panama has a lot going for it and by addressing continued improvement in healthcare, education and the standard of living for all Panamanians, Martinelli will focus on changing the status quo where more government employees and greater payrolls do not guarantee improvement, efficiency and productivity does.
Martinelli will also focus on building a stronger infrastructure not only in the City but in the interior and tourist nodes where he knows new projects will bring in additional foreign investment and create jobs and better housing for Panamanians in other regions outside the City. Panama has such a wealth of natural resources and beauty that still sits untouched and most of the world has not seen it.
The impact in Panama of the whole international crisis has not been felt as it should be compared to the neighboring countries, never mind the United States and European countries that are really feeling the stress of the economic situation. There are several factors for this. First of all, Panama has a very sound and solid banking system. None of our banks failed during this crisis. The only bank that failed was Stanford bank, and that was because it is based in the United States. This is important to know, because we do have a very solid market in Panama. In addition to that, we are undertaking the expansion of the canal, a project that has and will continue on schedule. So the demand for jobs and the demand for services with that project will maintain the economic growth.
If you look at the crisis that the United States and Europe is now entering, we will see that it will change pretty much everything. In the United States, Boomers will continue to be respected for their cultural achievements (it's not a fluke of history that Boomer music and other entertainments are still wildly popular among the young), but will be increasingly ignored in the political debate. The term "senior citizen," already in decline, will disappear entirely. And if push comes to shove, Boomer's financial interests – including Social Security – will be subjugated "for the greater good." While this change will entail a great deal of pain and a reduced standard of living for a large number of people, it will effect a change that will benefit Panama. Many people believe, including this author, that we will see the maturing Boomer generation facing the prospect of either going back to work at an older age where limited employment exists or many of them venturing outside the United States where they can have a better quality of life with the limited wealth that they have left to count on in their retirement years. Many will bring with them talents and professions that they can leverage in a new country to insure a continued quality of life and seek out new adventures at the same time. I am one of those people.
While Panama is not perfect or even close to it, It has a strong base and I would like to explain what I see in Panama's future, the many attractions and why like other Boomers, I came to move to Panama, the country of my birth.
As I am living in Boquete, which for many has come to be known as the Napa Valley of Panama, I am proud to confirm that for the 6th consecutive year Panama has won the World Coffee Championship which makes Panamanian coffee #1 in the world. Most people think the best coffee comes from Brazil or Costa Rica, but it comes from Panama. A couple of hours away we have some of the best fishing grounds in the world. Panama has 177 World records in deep sea fishing, so if you want to go fishing, you don’t go to Miami, you don’t go to Mexico, Jamaica, or the Bahamas, you go to Panama. This is where the big fish are. Testament to this was a recent trip I took my visiting son on where he landed a huge marlin and a 150 pound yellow fin tuna all within a couple of hours! Life is sweet when you can be grilling fresh tuna in the mountains just a couple of hours from the dock.
Enough of the personal side, let’s look at what makes Panama great and where it will be even greater in the future. One of the most important assets that Panama has, and people do not look at this as important now but they will in the future, is water. Panama has a lot of water. The country that controls the water of the world will be the new world leaders, and Panama is a sponge of water. There was a funny story I read about where some tourists were walking in Panama and they were holding a bottle of Evian. They paid $6 for the bottle at the hotel. Of course, the hotel didn’t tell them that the tap water in Panama is just as good as or better than Evian and of course, Evian spelled backwards is naïve.
Panama has the largest merchant fleet in the world. More ships have Panamanians flags than any other. Panama has the second largest free trade zone, behind Hong Kong, so we have a lot of progress going in our favor. As I said before, Martinelli intends to build more highways that will revolutionize this country, the way the U.S. changed during the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s and the construction of the interstate highway system. By constructing highways in Panama, including the Caribbean coast, running from the Kuna indigenous islands of San Blas to the Costa Rican border, that whole area of the Caribbean, which is virgin, will be exploding with tourism and commerce. The government’s plan is to build 5 more international airports. That may seem very exotic to some people, but the Dominican Republic, home to hundreds of new resorts, is smaller and much poorer than Panama, and has 7 international airports. Panama is also developing the ports - last December Panama became the Latin American home port of the U.S. cruise industry. So cruise ships originate and terminate in Panama. That brings in additional tourists that were not there before. Panama is also outside of the hurricane belt.
As Panama continues to grow we will knock on the doors of all of the large multinational corporations that are now have headquarters in Florida, Atlanta, and the southeast US and to bring it to Panama. Panama is an excellent place to do business. We have fiscal incentives, we are free of earthquakes and hurricanes, we have the dollar currency…there are a lot of pluses for doing business in Panama. But most companies do not know that. But now a lot more American and multinational companies will be coming to Panama to establish regional headquarters, because we also have a hub of the Americas here. We fly to every country in Latin America and 5 cities in the US on a daily basis.
Martinelli will be very successful, changing the dormant way the government does business, and he will put priorities in the right place because he is a business man and surrounded by business people. That will help us grow even more aggressively than before.
Let us celebrate change.
Proud to be an American and proud to be a Panamanian,
Tom Brymer |
