Dear members,

Before all, I hope you are all well and staying safe.

Great News! We have ahead of us a full new year which will surely see our best social and business achievements yet! In 2021, we hope to be able to realize our annual events that have become popular attractions in Panama´s entertainment calendar. We are planning some new and creative networking events and lunches.

In these difficult times faced in 2020, we tried to make a difference, helping those in need by focusing on a single recipient, the orphans. We worked together with SENNIAF, the entity in charge of 54 shelters across the country with around 2,000 children and adolescents who are notably affected by this pandemic situation. We donated food, cleaning and hygiene items. But this would not have been possible without the support of our members and friends who supported us.

We also decided to bring some happiness and cheer our doctors and nurses who are in the front line fighting with this pandemic. During months of work, most of them didn’t take the time to get a haircut. Therefore, we brought the hairdressers to the Santo Tomas Hospital. We really want to thank the administration who allowed us to develop this activity. It took us time to organize it with all the measures and recommendations from the Ministry of Health, to develop a save activity.

Another interesting thing from this year are our new alliances with the British Chambers Central America, and Panamanian-European chambers with which we have been working shoulder to shoulder, in organizing webinars and helping people to move in and out of Panama. 2020 was also witness of the signing of the collaboration agreement with the state agency, Propanama.  Also we met the Superintendent of banks in Panama the new arrivals of British Business in the country interested in the banking sector.

We developed a closer contact with the Panamanian Embassy in UK and the Ambassador Natalia Royo, who is supporting us and will be collaborating in new event.

Latin America is facing a moment of incertitude so we are aware that to overcome the present crisis and obtain positive results we need to work together and learn from each other’s experience. We have kept in mind that there is a Brexit situation. Even if we have seen economic problems with the current crisis we still have plenty of investment opportunities. For long, we have been placed in the top 3 for investment in Latin America due to safe jurisdictions, the geopolitical situation and the flexibilization of immigration. We have even recently talked to new international business groups who are being attracted by the benefit of Panama’s reduced risk of investment.

This makes us feel positive for 2021. We appreciate and welcome the government protective measures; however, we would like to see our local government providing an environment with more integrity and transparency.

Finally, we would like to point out that the chamber, operational speaking, is safe and sound. Thanks to the generosity of our members, we were able to sustain high liquidity levels. As a result, we even have had to chance to receive our new intern from University of Bath, Romain Meurat.

We would like to thank, once again, our members, donators, friends and partners. We are thrilled to have your support during this year.

From all of us in the British Chamber of Commerce Panama we wish you a prosperous new year 2021!

Sincerely,

Ernesto Lara

Chairman