Once again businessmen and the Government affirm that the threats of street closures are not good for the country and weaken the dialogue table established in the province of Coclé.
The president of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives, Temístocles Rosas, who took office on the morning of this Tuesday, August 9, reiterated that call to maintain dialogue without pressure measures that harm the economy.
The businessman assured that the business sector is still waiting for the government to call them to sit down in these negotiations and affirmed that since they are not participants in this dialogue, they are unaware of the agreements that may be reached within these conversations.
“We are still waiting for a second stage that we don’t know when, or how, or where… If it happens, the decisions have already been made; so for us it is very unfortunate… As we have mentioned, we do not recognize the agreements that are taking place at that negotiating table,” he said.
For his part, the minister, Commerce Minister Federico Alfaro, said that since the beginning of the negotiations the government has shown its good will, even when the unions broke the agreements regarding fuel, the State complied by lowering gasoline to $3.25, the price which he said is the lowest in the region.
He stressed that in terms of the basic basket, the price of 72 products was lowered, which shows progress in the dialogue. He accepted that it is important that all sectors sit down to dialogue to achieve better agreements that benefit everyone.
“That seems irresponsible to me, we have seen how street closures lead to absolutely nothing, they affect to all Panamanians, they prevent our children and our youth from going to school to study and what we want is to continue reactivating the economy,” he said, referring to the protest actions.
The declarations of Alfaro and Rosas were given during the inauguration ceremony of the new Board of Directors of APEDE.
