The discussion on the mining contract will move to Donoso

The first contract discussion between The State and Mining of Panama will be transferred from Monday to the districts of Donoso and Omar Torrijos.

According to the legislature, next Monday, September 4, the Commerce Commission will be in Donos, while on Wednesday, September 6, it will travel to Omar Torrios Herrera.

Deputy Roberto Ábrego, President of the Commission, reiterated that the participation methodology is the same: each person has 20 minutes to speak.

Commissioners and other deputies will have up to 30 minutes to speak when the time comes.

By this Thursday, more than 100 people had intervened, including environmentalists, workers, economist, among others.

At yesterday’s meeting, Trade and Industry Minister Federico Alfaro Boyd reappeared to present the contract approved by the Cabinet.

Alfaro said that if the contract is not approved, foreign investments of more than 10 billion dollars, 7 thousand direct jobs and 40 thousand indirect jobs would be put into question.

This without counting that the country would put investment grade on the edge acquired by an activity that generates $800 million with payments to suppliers and an annual contribution of more than 5% of GDP.

Regarding environmental concerns, the minister expressed that there will be more demands, among which are payment for water use, responsibility for afforestation and transfer of the 300 megabyte power plant. In the labor issue, he referred to the fact that the possibility of employing foreign workers is decreasing from 25 percent to 15 percent.

The contract sent to the National Assembly cannot be changed, because only this instance has the authority to approve or reject it.

The leaders of trade union organizations requested holding a referendumto determine whether the contract with Minera Panama has been executed.

Of the 221 people registered to participate and express their opinions for or against the contract, 130 of them were invited.