Panama - Chiriqui: Commission for Train Project

Posted on 2018-05-16

The Government created the High Level Commission of the Panama-Chiriqui Railway Project, which will act as liaison with the entities designated by the Government of China to coordinate everything related to the feasibility study of the train construction project. He did it through an executive decree which bears the signature of the President of the Republic Juan Carlos Varela and the Minister of the Presidency, Alvaro Aleman, informed the State Communication Secretariat. Said commission will be attached to the Ministry of the Presidency. Among its functions is to develop the action plan to be executed to carry out the feasibility study of the railway project, promote and coordinate the actions established in the action plan, follow up on the actions that are drawn to carry out the feasibility study and supervise the effective implementation of the actions to execute for the feasibility study. It must also establish, when necessary, the intellectual property criteria, according to the legislation in force for each country and international development and perform any other function that is necessary to carry out the feasibility study. The Presidency informed that it is contemplated that the High Level Commission will have a budget for operations and internal expenses that will be assigned by the Ministry of the Presidency.

And this commission would be integrated as follows: by the Minister of the Presidency (who will preside over it), Foreign Affairs, Economy and Finance, Housing and Territorial Planning, Public Works and the Environment; In addition to the Secretary of Presidential Goals, the director of the Panama Metro S.A. and the general manager of the Electric Transmission Company. According to the Decree, which will be published this Monday in the Official Gazette, these officials may designate who represents them in absence. The Panama-Chiriqui rail project comes after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Panama and the People's Republic of China on rail transport, which occurred during the official visit of President Varela to the eastern nation last year. In view of this, the Chinese Government, through the cooperation agreement of December 7, 2017, undertook to provide non-reimbursable cooperation to the Government of Panama to carry out the feasibility studies of the railway project.

Source: La Prensa