The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, met this Monday in the city of Paris with the first group of French companies interested in developing projects, investing or developing businesses in Panama, among them the multinational giants Veolia, Suez, Alstom and Thales .
All of these are companies attracted by the opportunities that Panama presents in specific sectors such as drinking water production, waste treatment, energy and railway projects.
Within this day, Mulino met with Veolia’s Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, Sébastien Daziano, as well as the company’s Project Director, Pierre Maurin.
Veolia is a French company of global reference in ecological transformation. It is present on five continents with nearly 220,000 employees. The group designs and implements water, waste and energy management solutions.
The Panamanian president also had a meeting with the general director of Alstom for Latin America, Bernad Peille, and the director of institutional relations of the company, Philippe Delleur.
Alstom is a French corporation focused on the business of electricity generation and the manufacturing of trains and ships. In the period 2004/2005, this French company had sales of 13.7 billion euros, employing 69,000 people in about 70 countries.
Another meeting of President Mulino, on his first day of tour in France, was with Sabrina Soussan, president-general director of the Suez group; Pierre Pauliac, director of Water; Fabrice Bouchetiel, CEO of Latin America; and Eric Ghebali, executive vice president of Development.
Suez is a French group that operates mainly in the water treatment, waste management and maintenance sectors. Suez’s activities include: production and distribution of drinking water; wastewater treatment; design and manufacture of water purification plants, and management of domestic and industrial wastewater.
Previously, Suez was an operating division of the original company, which was divided in 2008 to allow its merger with Gaz de France, creating GDF Suez, currently Engie and Suez Environnement.
In addition, Mulino met with representatives of the Thales company, Jean-Noel Bonnieu, vice president of International Relations; Federique Miller, vice president of Sales; Gordon Sarlet, Director of Business Development for Central America; Garriguenc Madige, Director of Offers; and Andreani Ariane, director of Central America.
The Thales Group is a French electronics company dedicated to the development of information systems and services for the aerospace, transportation, defense and security markets.
The Panamanian president assured that he will seek investments that generate jobs and improve the quality of life of Panamanians.
“A country that leaves the discriminatory lists will be increasingly attractive to foreign investment, even more so when there is an open and transparent government. We are beginning a process of positive change that allows us to generate confidence in investors,” concluded President Mulino.
