Logistics sector: 200 million dollars of losses per week

Business Council of Logistics (COEL) reported yesterday that road closures represent a sector dedicated to international cargo about 200 million dollars in losses for each week of the extension of the crisis that the country is experiencing, which at the same time brings into deep uncertainty the stability of thousands of jobs in the private sector.

For this reason, logistics yesterday called on the Government to find a way to unblock all roads in the country through reliable interlocutors. So COEL joined the campaign of the National Council for Private Enterprise (CONEP) called Liberemos Panamá.

This is an invitation to companies associated with the transportation of commercial cargo, land, sea and air, where their international clients may look for other alternatives for the passage of their goods, removing Panama from the competition.

“Road blocks and growing intolerance led to unfathomable losses. The protests, the barricades on the Panamericana, the lives taken prematurely are the scars we now bear as a country. These are not millions of economic losses; “These are losses of hope, security and trust in a better tomorrow,” COEL president Hugo Torrijos said at yesterday’s press conference.

Torrijos even said that after last week’s meeting between the business sector and President Laurentino Cortiz, “we felt the frustration and fatigue of the employer sector, which is suffocated by the lack of a clear solution.

“Uncertainty about the suspension Labor contracts hang like a dark cloud over the heads of thousands of workersand the feeling that the government is disconnected feels like a weight in the chest,” Torrijos added during the COEL conference.

This crisis also affects Panama internationally. “As you know, Panama is recognized as a logistics center throughout the world, and unfortunately the country is suffering greatly due to the closure of land routes that prevent the transit of cargo, imports and exports to and from Central America; as well as cargo that is connected by air. What for it took us so many years, that prestige of the Panama brand in the world is collapsing,” said Torrijos.’

200

millions of dollars in losses for every week of extension of the crisis that the country is experiencing.

A representative of the logistics union indicated that the future of this industry depends on the ability to facilitate the transit of goods throughout the world. He pointed out that in this crisis, not only the entrepreneurs who deal with it, most of whom are micro and small businesses, are losing, but also more than half of Panamanian families.

This affects companies dedicated to transport, agents, customs brokers and other professions related to logistics.

“These losses are already turning into instability of jobs, increase in unemployment and lack of supplies for all our fellow citizens,” Torrijos pointed out when announcing the position of this union.

“These blockades mortgage our future as a nation and our well-being as a society. How and why did these small groups of vandals get this far,” the COEL president also asked.

The president of the Maritime Chamber of Panama, Yira Poyser, indicated that the logistics industry and the country’s economy are being stifled by road closures, which further increases the water problem in the Panama Canal.

“Land transport is the key to help accelerate that load that does not move in the channel, but if the roads are blocked now, international trade will not be able to accelerate,” Poyser said.

The logistics sector, which combines maritime activity, land and air freight transport, generates between 150 thousand and 200 thousand direct jobs.