Ambassador Stephenson's Remarks at the American Chamber of Commerce 30th Anniversary Celebration

October 22, 2009

As an honorary director of AmCham, I am delighted to join you tonight to celebrate the 30th anniversary.  Thanks for this opportunity to share some thoughts with you.

First of all, congratulations! Thirty years is a noteworthy milestone and all of you should be proud of what you have accomplished.

I am comfortable enough about my age and proud enough of my long association with Panama to stand up here tonight and say that I remember well working with AmCham 23 years ago during my first tour as an American diplomat in Panama.  You were good back then, but you are really great now.  It is so impressive to see how this organization has matured into the force it has become today.

I want to thank AMCHAM as an organization for its leadership through the years, and, as American Ambassador, I want to thank the members of Amcham for the how much you contribute to the positive image of America in this country.   In good times and bad--and let’s face it, times have not been good-- the U.S. business community continues to represents the best of the American brand: transparency, innovation, accountability, opportunity, and fairness.

The United States shares with Panama many common goals.  For example, we see it as very much in our interest that Panama achieve its goal of becoming a first-world country because we would like to be able to count on a stable, democratic, prosperous Panama to be a partner in addressing the challenges of the region and beyond.

To that end, we have been paying a good deal of attention lately to global rankings of competitiveness that have recently come out.  The presence of many of you here tonight, and of your companies here in Panama, is a testament to how well in general Panama has been doing in terms of its competitiveness and its ability to attract foreign investment.  But a handful of weak rankings—in education and the strength of the judicial system—pull Panama down in those global rankings, and I’d like to talk about those challenges for a few minutes.

All of us here understand that Panama’s continued economic competitiveness and prosperity is directly tied to having a strong public education system.  Education is great way to increase opportunities and to spread the benefits of economic development broadly through society.  I hope that all of us will be champions for the necessary intuitional reforms, for increased English language instruction, and for developing creative programs to help every Panamanian achieve his or her own educational goals.  As the American Ambassador, I am eager to see more talented Panamanians from across society be able to study in American universities, just as many of you whose companies require a workforce fluent in English are eager to have qualified people to recruit.  I hope we can work together to increase opportunities for talented young Panamanians to get a good education and to master English – thereby ensuring that ties between our countries remain strong and that your companies can continue to prosper here while offering good jobs to Panamanians with big dreams.

Returning to those competitiveness rankings, we also realize that Panama’s ability to continue to attract and retain foreign direct investment would be bolstered by having an independent, impartial and efficient judicial system. In one of the recent rankings, Panama’s judicial system came in 115 out of 134 total places, indicating there is considerable room for improvement.  In the Embassy, we will continue to be advocates for a strong judiciary, for adherence to the rule of law, and we hope you will as well.

Lastly, we share in the concern of all Panamanians about the rise of crime, violence, and gangs as well as the corrupting influence of drug trafficking. The Embassy community will continue to work alongside our Panamanian counterparts to help change this dynamic and drive those crime statistics down. But we can all play a role in making communities safer and you are doing this through your generous CSR programs and by creating bridges to communities that need help. We have talked to a number of you already about how we can engage at-risk youth to choose a life of hope, rather than a path of destruction, and we have been working with the government to align our work in the embassy with the government’s new Elige tu Vida initiative.  I’ll be happy to talk to any of you who would like to dedicate some of your CSR efforts to giving young people hope and opportunity.

Let me wrap up my comments by noting that Panama has had a remarkable run of economic growth, continuing to grow this past year when almost every other country in the hemisphere, including the U.S., experienced a powerful contraction.  As a proud member of the AmCham board, I firmly believe that part of Panama’s success can be attributed to the great work you, the members of AmCham, do.  Through your example of transparent and accountable business processes, and your support for strong democratic institutions, a competitive education system, and safe communities, you play an important role in helping Panama find its place in the first world.

I speak on behalf of the entire Embassy community when I say that we look forward to continued close cooperation with AMCHAM.

Congratulations on 30 great years and continued success on the next 30!