It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of October and with it begins the Holiday Season already. While we dust off our costumes for Halloween parties, and make plans for Thanksgiving with family and friends, Christmas is right around the corner and the New Year will be here before we know it.
Panama Jazz Festival
Looking ahead for 2011, I am planning to attend a grand festival in Casco Viejo in Panama City in January when the annual Panama Jazz Festival is held. It is a fabulous way to start the year off with concerts taking place in the National Theatre, Plaza de la Catedral and other venues in Panama City.
If you are planning on staying in Casco, which I highly recommend, you might want to try a new place that is having its soft opening this month.
Las Clementina – Originally built in the 1930s by Clementina Herrera and her daughter Clementina Jaen, owner of a successful jewelry shop, the building sits on top of the original city wall.
Each of Las Clementinas’ six suites is a full apartment. The hardwood floors are made from wood recovered from beneath Lake Gatun and 80-year-old Florida Pine from old US Army barracks on the Carribean side of the Canal. Las Clementinas offers a level of personalized service that larger properties simply cannot match. All staff have been trained at Canal House, a New York Times “Editor’s Choice” located just a few blocks away.
Below the hotel is the Cafe & Bar. The chef is Javier Lamarca. Food is “best described as Panamanian classics lovingly updated and made with care – the kind of comfort food that foreigners fall in love with when they visit and Panamanians crave when they travel.” Private dinners and events can be held in the secret garden – a hidden garden discovered nearly two stories below street level, nestled into the historic city wall.
Panama: $ 300 million Ocean Reef Islands Project
I received an update from La Estrella on the Ocean Reef Project and it looks like it might get built. This huge undertaking would provide the ultimate private enclave for the wealthy here in Panama right in front of the City. The You Tube video is great.
Source: laestrella.com.pa
Thursday, October 14, 2010
With the presence of President Ricardo Martinelli the Ocean Reef Islands project was launched.
Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA), contractor and builder Grupo Los Pueblos developer of Punta Pacific Islands, will invest approximately $ 300 million.
Martinelli considered this project visionary as the investment is purely Panamanian capital (approximately $ 300 million) and allows to project confidence to other investors, domestic and foreign, to continue to position Panama as a nation with first world infrastructure.
In Panama Pacifico We also Speak French
My freinds at London and Regional that is developing Panama Pacifico, sent me this press release and it is good news for the community, both Panamanian and Foreign as we see more families wanting the best for their childrens education.
London & Regional Panamá, is proud to announce the start of operations of the French Lycée Paul Gauguin of Panama, who joins the rapidly growing group of visionaries who have found in Panama Pacifico, the place to settle, do business, live and have fun.
Delphine Blanchard, the President of the “Lycée Français Paul Gauguin de Panama” and Henry Kardonski, Managing Director of London & Regional Panama, signed an agreement that will allow this educational institution belonging to the french network of schools abroad (www.aefe.fr), to which more than 400 educational schools in 130 countries are affiliated, offer bicultural quality education to children and young people of any nationality.
The French Lycée Paul Gauguin of Panama, offers its students between 3 and 18 years, the opportunity to get to know the Panamanian and French cultures, accompanying them until the preparation of the French Diploma of Bachelor, which will facilitate them to enter the best French and European universities.
London & Regional Panama, master developer of the new mixed use community which is being developed on the banks of the Panama Canal, promotes the installation of companies and institutions of the highest quality and reputation in Panamá Pacífico, as well as residents who seek the comfort of living close to everything in a place where you will find areas of recreation, shopping, restaurants and the best education.
Thinking big for charity in Boquete
Closer to home, our small mountin town got some well deserved reognition for volunteer work done here in our community. My wife and son participate in working at the local orphange and in a small way bring a little help where it is greatly needed.
FRIDAY, 08 OCTOBER 2010 09:00 The Social Scene
The expat community in Boquete is aiming to show that big thinking pays off in a big way for local charities.
Every year since 2007, the ExPat community in Boquete Has joined with the local Panamanian community to organize an annual charity auction to benefit four grass roots organizations to help improving the lives of the lest fortunate members of society. In the first three years the event raised $42,000 total. This year the project has grown and is being run by a trio of women, Bonnie Williams, Martine Heyer and Penny Barrett, who have expanded it from one to two days, and expect to raise as much this year as in the previous three years combined.
Generali will provide visitor insurance
Good news if you are going to visiting Panama next year as reported in CentralAmericadata.com.
The insurance company Generali won the contract for providing tourist insurance for all visitors to Panama who arrive through the Tocumen International Airport. This was announced recently by the Administrator of the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP), Salomon Shamah. The policy is a landmark decision, one that the current administration made to incentivize tourism in the country.
Generali submitted its proposal along with American Life Insurance (Alico), HSBC Insurance, Aseguradora Mundia and Pan American Life. According to the ATP their proposal was also the most complete and one of the other bidders had even failed to submit information related to their service providers, for example qualifications of risk ratings. The policy will cost the government $1.95 per visitor.
According to the contract, tourists will be insured for up to $7,000 in case of hospitalization and $40,000 if they have to be moved to a medical facility abroad for further attention regarding an injury here in Panama.
Incentive laws fuel foreign investment in Panama – a look at attractive options
I read this article from Panama Offshore Legal Services with interest as it tells a lot of what is happening down here and why you might want to take a look at investing some of your portfolio outside the US.
Business is big and business is booming in Panama. The country’s strategic global location and the US dollar are important factors, but legal incentives have long played a big part in warming up Panama’s economic engine.
It began over half a century ago
The oldest of these laws created the Colon Free Zone (CFZ) in 1948 and now it is the second-largest in the world after Hong Kong. More than 1,800 companies operate inside this trade zone. Companies in the CFZ must export a minimum 60% of all imported goods annually and hire five Panamanians. Benefits of being in the CFZ include no import duties, a low 5% dividend tax, and no income taxes on earned income resulting from exporting goods.
Panama Pacifico
Several “Special Economic Areas” of Panama offer many tax breaks. The Panama Pacifico economic area, for example, is a 1,400 hectare mixed use community and business park built on the former US Howard Air Force Base near the Panama Canal entrance of the Pacific side. Companies wishing to operate inside this economic area must apply to London & Regional Panama and to the government’s Panama Pacifico Agency.
The benefits of being located within Panama Pacifico include exemptions from income taxes, import duties, stamp tax, real estate taxes, remittance tax, international calling tax, and dividend taxes. There are also 10 year tax exemptions for transferring goods and services between the ports, to ships and passengers, to petroleum free zones, to other companies and government agencies located in Panama Pacifico, and to the London & Regional Panama company. Labor laws regarding working hours, Sunday & holiday pay, and the right to negotiate different days of rest and vacations with employees are relaxed. Companies will also have more immigration visas and work permits for foreign workers.
Location in the Panama Pacifico special economic zone requires being engaged in industry-specific activities, including but not limited to: offshore services, call center, multimodal & logistics services, back office services, data & digital transmission, high tech manufacturing & assembly, maritime services, aviation services.
Well it is time to hit the send button and run to the gym before I get back to work.
I will head down the golf course and over the river to the club house and put in an hour of hard workout to keep the mind and body fresh. Did I say work somewhere in this paragraph. Yeah, somebody has to do it right. Until the next time, I hope you would consider visiting us and seeing some of the opportunties to invest, wheter it is a beachfront home, a business or just a simple lifestyle in the mountains like Boquete has to offer.
Call me anytime at 305-448-1003 or if you are already here and want to see some options my cell in Panama is 507-6810-1074
Ciao’