A bi-national business group that promotes economic activity between Panama and the U.S. will soon open an operation in Atlanta to target six states in the Southeast region for business development.
The U.S.-Panama Business Council, a 14-year-old organization that currently has offices in Washington and Panama City, is also developing an office in Houston that covers the southwestern U.S.
Luis Hall, the representative chosen to build the Southeast chapter’s membership base, told GlobalAtlanta that he will soon begin recruiting board members from all tiers of Atlanta’s business community.
He hopes to have the executive structure of the organization set up by the end of March.
Mr. Hall, who runs BLJ Group LLC, an Atlanta-based management consulting company, said the decision to open the Atlanta office came on a trip to Panama with Juan Sosa, the president of the council’s U.S. office and Panama’s ambassador to the U.S. during the late 1980s.
Mr. Sosa represented his country during the turbulent period of the late 1980s, when Manuel Noriega overthrew Eric Delvalle, the president who appointed Mr. Sosa. Still recognized as the legitimate ambassador by the U.S., Mr. Sosa led a diplomatic coalition protesting Mr. Noriega’s authority.
The U.S. eventually invaded Panama, deposed Mr. Noriega and brought him back to the U.S. on drug charges.
After the war, economic interaction between the U.S. and Panama increased, and relations improved further in the late 1990s when the U.S. gave control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government as outlined in a treaty signed in 1977 by President Carter.
In view of this interaction, Mr. Sosa has devoted much of his post-diplomatic life to building business relationships between the two countries.
“The U.S. is the No. 1 partner for trade and investment in Panama,” Mr. Sosa told GlobalAtlanta by telephone, adding that there are hundreds of American companies in Panama.
About four years ago during the Panama Spectacular, a recurring real estate conference sponsored in part by the business council, Mr. Hall and Mr. Sosa met with Panama’s vice president, who expressed an interest in seeing the organization expand its U.S. presence.
Having moved to Atlanta from New York in 2000, Mr. Hall was a natural fit to head the organization’s efforts in the Southeast.
Now, Mr. Hall wants “tell the story” of the myriad business opportunities between Georgia and his native Panama that have gone largely unnoticed in the absence of government representation from Panama in the Georgia.
Although Panama has had a consulate general and an honorary consul in Georgia before, the state now recognizes no official representation, a fact Mr. Hall says has kept Panama out of the spotlight for too long.
“We need to raise the level of awareness in the Southeast region, especially in Atlanta, about Panama,” he said. To do so, the council will lobby for government representation here and promote Panama’s logistical ties to Georgia.
The Panama Canal is currently undergoing a more than $5 billion expansion that could nearly double ship traffic upon its projected completion date in 2015, according to Panama Canal Authority projections.
The canal has already been an invaluable asset in facilitating expanding trade between Georgia and China, as the ports of Savannah and Brunswick are among the many on America’s eastern seaboard to see increased traffic from Asia’s manufacturing and assembly centers.
Also, a nonstop Delta Air Lines Inc. flight from Atlanta to Panama City makes the Central American nation just as accessible as the West Coast, with the added advantage of sharing a time zone with Atlanta.
“I take that flight to Panama City, and my trip last week to San Diego was longer than that,” Mr. Hall said.
Jorge Fernandez, vice president for global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, had a hand in establishing that air link while heading up Delta’s Latin American and Caribbean operations.
Before working with Delta, he also traveled to Panama many times throughout 24 years as a pilot and international affairs adviser in the U.S. Air Force.
Mr. Fernandez said the metro chamber is “working very closely” with Mr. Hall, a chamber member, to establish the council’s operation here, which could function much like its own chamber of commerce and fulfill many economic functions a consulate would normally perform.
But the biggest challenge is getting the word out about Panama.
In that arena, Mr. Fernandez said Panama faces a similar challenge to Atlanta, which is known abroad by its association with Coca-Cola Co., “Gone with the Wind” and the Olympic Games, but often not as a business center, Mr. Fernandez said.
In the same way, “most people know Panama because of the canal, but they don’t know what Panama really is,” he said.
Mr. Hall hopes the council will make that picture a little clearer.
