LW: We will start with economy.  In the past four or five years Panamas economy has really been booming, growing at an average rate of 8.5% a year.  With the current financial downturn things have slowed down a bit, but Panama remains strong.  What does incoming president Ricardo Martinelli plan on doing to prevent the economic collapse that we have been seeing in other Latin American countries?

Figueroa: First of all, 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.  And 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 at a faster pace than normally.  And that expansion project, by the way, is larger than the original canal project from 1904-1914.  So the expansion project is larger than the original canal, as far as movement of land.

LW: I remember being in Panama, and it was definitely a very exciting time.  Just how many jobs the expansion was going to create, and then once, of course, its finished the real boom to the economy the canal will bring.  It really couldn’t have come at a better time because it is a kind of safeguard in this economic crisis, with all the jobs created as a direct result of the expansion and as a byproduct.

Figueroa: In addition to that, its very important that we have the Martinelli factor in place.  Ricardo Martinelli is a businessman, he is business oriented, and he has been very successful in his career. Last year he invoiced around 450 million with the Super 99 supermarket chain.  He has a vision, a different vision than most presidents.  Normally we have had a lot of corruption, which is rampant in Latin America, but Martinelli said “No, we aren’t going to steal any money, we are going to work and make government efficient.”  Now, if Martinelli is successful, and I believe he will be, in making government efficient, then panama has an opening to be the first economy in the world.  Panama is a very small country, we came out of the ocean 3 mill years ago, united the two continents.  This made an ecological wonder.  We have more bird species than any other country in the world.  We have more bird species than North America and Europe combined.  We have 177 World records in deep sea fishing, so if yo 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.

For the 6th consecutive year Panama has won the World Coffee Championship in Charlotte, NC, 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.  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.  We have a very fertile jungle.

I remember a few weeks back i was walking on the causeway and there were some American tourists walking and they were holding a bottle of Evian.  I asked them why there were drinking Evian in Panama.  After all, Evian spelled backwards is naive.  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 or better than Evian.

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.  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 construction highways in Panama, including the Caribbean coast, running from the Kuna indigenous islands of San Blas to the Costa Rican boarder, that whole area of the Caribbean, which is virgin, will be exploding with tourism and commerce.

We mention in our government plan that we are going to build 5 more international airports.  That may seem very exotic to some people, but the Dominican Republic, which is smaller and much poorer than Panama, has 7 international airports.  So building 5 additional airports in Panama is not something that is out of whack.  So by building the airports and highways, as well as 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.  We intend to go forth and knock on the doors of all the major cruise lines – Norwegian, Carnival – to bring this business to Panama.

Panama has only 3 million inhabitants.  So, per square mile we have a lot of land. So to grow we need to stop thinking Lilliputian.  We have to think big.  The problem with many of the Panamanian governments before is that they were thinking small.  Two lanes? No, you need to do six lanes!  This is Martinelli’s view of panama.

Now when my customers come to Panama i tell them to take a window seat on the airplane.  They have a fantastic view of the Panama canal, and then as they approach, they see the Panama City skyline, and I don’t care if you are from Manhattan, you will be awed by that.  They get off the plane and say “Wow, we did not expect this.”  And you see all the movement in Panama, you see all the cranes.  Its exploding.  Especially the people from Europe, who come from countries with few high-rises, and Panama’s skyline is very impressive.  Now we open the new coastal highway, which is very beautiful, which is due to open June 15th.

I think we will focus more on developing tourism in the interior of the country.  Right now only 2 out of every 10 tourists cross the bridge of the Americas to enter into the interior.  So we need to develop that area in an orderly fashion.

So Panama continues to grow.  We intend to 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.

By looking at that I can forecast to you, first of all, that Martinelli will be very successful, changing the dormant way the government does business, and he will put priorities in the right place because hes a business man and surrounded by business people.  That will help us grow more aggressively than before.  Even though we may have this recession in the world, as a matter of fact this recession has been very good because people are looking at Panama as an option and were not looking at us before.  I think the market will keep on growing in that direction.  I am going on the 6th of June to Milan Italy to the largest real estate conference in Italy to make a presentation.

In Panama, we are now focusing more on the high-end market.  For example, we are building the Trump Ocean in Punta Pacifica – those units begin at over $1million, so we have to focus on high-end buyers.  We also have everything..everything on the road.  Now, we don’t want make Panama a welfare state.  We don’t want people coming in and saying “oh, i cant live on my social security in the U.S. so I am going to move to Panama.  No, that’s not the idea.  We want to concentrate on the high-level tourists and retirees to move here and enjoy the quality of life that we have here.

Photo provided by kenobando at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kobando/2683729227/