January 7, 2014 - American Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Panama
First on our agenda was a visit to the American Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Panama. After a great breakfast at the hotel (full of fresh fruit!!) we made our way through downtown dressed in our finest business casual. On the way to our contact we got to see the mixture of modern and historic buildings that make up the Panama City. Our beloved bus driver drove us around the government buildings, as well. Upon arrival at the Banesco building in the downtown financial district we took a very cool elevator to our final destination. Perhaps some of y'all are accustomed to this system but for everyone else it was basically looked like a karaoke stand with buttons representing all the floors, this way you have to push the floor upon entering the elevator which has no buttons on the inside. With some help we soon got to where we needed to be! From the elevator, we were greeted by the Executive Director of PanAmCham, Señor C.E. Maurice Bélanger, who directed us to the board room for a presentation of the organization and a great background history of Panama and valuable insight on Panama's growth and changes they are experiencing now. A few things we learned:
- Panama is considered to be the "business gateway to the Americas"
- PanAmCham's Vision is to be the "primary advocate, educator and business catalyst for bi-lateral commerce between the United States and Panama."
- AMCHAM members include familiar companies such as Citi, Caterpillar, PWC, Dell, P&G, Scotiabank, DHL, Marriot and more!
- Panama is especially ripe for foreign investment because of its safety, political stability, use of U.S. currency, and geographic location.
- Top opportunity sectors include Services (79% of Panama's GDP) and Tourism.
- There is much American influence in Panama as seen even through the popularity of baseball here!
Señor C.E. Maurice Bélanger gave us a lot of insight that would really help us understand Panama through the visits to come. He made sure to take some time in explaining some of the history between the United States and Panama as well as the significance of the Panama Canal. Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how similar the Executive Director's presentation was to the Country Project that International Business students had to complete in our first year. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats ... sounds an awful lot like a SWOT analysis to me! In addition, being a French minor with no background in Spanish, I was honestly a little anxious to see how I will fare in a country with the little survival "Spanglish" I have picked up but this trip has been amazing so far and we have met such kind people. I can't wait to see what else Panama has to show us!
Panama: "Bridge of the World, Heart of the Universe."
Nadar and Gabe in front of the main office.
Business students casually listening to the executive director in his boardroom...
No comments:
Post a Comment