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Multiple-entry Panama visa for Indians
New Delhi: In a significant move, the Panama Government has allowed Indian businessmen one year multiple-entry visas to their country to boost trade and economic ties with India. This was announced by Samuel Lewis Navarro, First Vice-President and Minister of External Affairs, Panama, at a meeting with Indian businessmen and entrepreneurs organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday night. Speaking on the occasion he said that the immigration problem for Indians to Panama had been uppermost in the priorities of his government for the last 15 months and he hoped that this announcement would provide an opportunity for the Indian businessmen and industrialists to come to "our little country". Navarrow said his visit to India was historic as this was the first visit of a Foreign Minister from Panama to India but ties with India dated back to the 1850s when the first Indian immigrants landed in Panama. "Today Indians form the largest component of businessmen in Panama numbering 14,000 out of the total population of the country of 3 million," he stated. Navarrow said that people in India knew very little about Panama and the objective of this delegation was to invite Indians to come and invest in Panama. He Invited Indians to "invest their knowledge and resources in our country." He said that although Panama was a small country it had played a very important role in the world trade and about five percent of the world trade goes to Panama. Panama, he stated, had very high living standards for executives due to various reasons. It was the largest free trade zone in the Western Hemisphere, it had enormous advantages by way of logistics and had tremendous scope for Indian participation in fields of energy, bio-diesel, training and education. "We have a Vision of Panama as a gateway to America, as a launching pad to the markets in Latin America and it is the most important place to conduct business in his part of the globe," he said.
Earlier in his address, R Vishwanathan, Joint Secretary (Latin American
countries), said that the importance of Panama stemmed from three major
factors-Panama was the gateway to the large market of Latin America and
it had the best logistics to reach that market. Secondly,"we have a lot
to learn from you in the way you are using the Canal as we are also users
of the Canal and lastly Panama is important to us because it has the largest
number of people of Indian origin," he said. Talking about the announcement
of the multiple entry visas by the Panama Foreign Minister, Vishwanathan
said that he was very happy that the vexed problem on immigration to Panama
had been solved by Navarrow with a stroke of the pen. Alberto J Pinzon,
Ambassador to India from Panama, said this visit to India would provide
an "opportunity for both of us to interact and grow together". Earlier,
welcoming the delegation, V. K. Mathur, Chairman Impex Ltd said that there
was much scope for furthering ties with Panama as 6 million tourists from
India visited Panama every year and Panama could be projected as a destination
to promote tourism. These opportunities, he said, could be turned into
economic ties in some fields."For instance, India is today exporting 250,000
cars and this figure is expected to go up to half a million by the year
2007. Another field where collaboration could be boosted was in the field
of shipping,"he suggested.
-Nov
19, 2005
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