Thetaworld Corporation

In coordination with the Panamanian Tourist Agency, the Land Registration Department is working to provide a better service to investors

The Cadastre and State Property Bureau of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), in coordination with the Panamanian Tourism Bureau (IPAT), is proceeding to put in order all the country’s affairs relative to land property and occupation in order to preserve the legal rights of owners and private property, the Cadastre director, Benjamin Colamarco, indicated today.

“Both national and foreign businessmen should be assured that their investments will be protected and respected, within the framework of constitutional and legal provisions”, the official added. He emphasized that one of the Government’s objectives is precisely to promote local and foreign investments as a way of stimulating economic growth and, thus, the generation of employment opportunities.

Colamarco said that investors in the tourism sector are interested in Panama and, therefore, his office, along with IPAT and the Environmental office are embarked on efforts to ensure that investments in areas of high tourism potential comply with the country’s legal provisions. Therefore, he said, “we are determined to offer the required guidance.”

Law No. 63 of July 31, 1973, which created the Land Registration Department, includes the function of “managing and processing leases of the Nation’s estate lands, with the exception of those destined for farming and stockbreeding purposes”.

In the framework of its strategy, on March 9 the Government launched a program to foster competitiveness aimed at developing the four sectors of the Panamanian economy having the highest potential. Tourism is one of those economic sectors and the other three are transportation/logistics, the agricultural-industrial sector and technology/communications. The so called Compite Panama Program has the financial support of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), and its execution is under the responsibility of the German firm GFA Management.

“The inter-institutional coordination we have developed with other government agencies allows us to solve investor consultations quickly to their benefit and ours,” Colamarco added.

“We are implementing the necessary regulations and actions aimed at improving the country’s capacity to receive foreign investment, guaranteeing legal security and respect for private property”, Colamarco pointed out, noting that those businessmen interested in consultations and clarification on matters of tourism, can do so directly with IPAT or with the Land Registration office.

Panama is being closely observed by the international financial community due to the changes advanced by President Martin Torrijos’ Government to strengthen public finances, and to guarantee the future viability of the social security regime, through an overhaul of its social security system.

The investment bank, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), predicted today that the passing and ultimate implementation of a legal reform that oversees the retirement and pension system could accelerate an improvement in Panama’s risk rating.

Panama’s CSFB analyst observed that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services gave the signal when it revised its outlook on Panama to stable from negative, by announcing on Friday February 18 that it would keep its ‘BB’ long-term sovereign credit rating on Panama. This rating is only two steps away from investment grade category.

Last week, CSFB maintained Panama in a “strategic overweight” based in their “positive view of the likely improvement in long-term fundamentals”, and recommended its clients to broaden their investments in Panamanian bonds. This reassessment placed Panama as the second best country of all emerging markets for investment purposes, only surpassed by Russia.

Moody’s Investors Service already rates Panama at only one step below the investment grade category (Baa1). It is expected that once the country’s social security system reform is approved, Moody’s could raise the country’s credit to the investment grade category. The Minister of Economy and Finances, Ricaurte Vasquez M., has pointed out that the current administration’s goal is to attain the investment grade category for Panama before its government period is over.

The improved rating allows the Government as well as the private sector players to obtain financing at much lower interest rates, in addition to enhancing local as well as foreign investments.

“Given the congressional support fiscal reform package and the strong popular support enjoyed by the administration (of President Martin Torrijos), we expect the pension

reform to be approved by Congress during the second quarter of 2005”, states the CSFB in its Emerging Markets Economics Daily Report.

At the beginning of February, another investment bank, Wachovia Securities, returned Panama to the market weight level. In its February 7 bulletin, five days after the Fiscal Equity Law was enacted, Wachovia Securities recognized the progress attained (by Panama)”in addressing our concerns”, and expressed its confidence ithat the government will “soon proceed with the necessary social security reform”.

On the other hand, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced on February 18 that “it revised its outlooks on its long-term sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Panama to stable from negative”. In its rationale on the improvement, S&P analyst Lisa Schineller explainst that, “the outlook revisions reflect expected improvement in the government fiscal deficit and debt dynamics, following the recent passage of a fiscal reform package and prospects for social security reform.”

On Monday, February 21, the Emerging Markets Bond Index (EMBI) of Panama, which reflects the country risk level, reached its lowest level since October 1997, placing itself at only 279 basic points (2.79%) over the United States Treasury Bonds, which implies a better interest rate level, for the government as well as for the private sector.

It is worth pointing out that, before the beginning of the discussion on the fiscal package signed on February 2 by President Martin Torrijos, Panama bonds were close to 328 basic points (3.28%). This is equivalent to a sturdy drop of almost half a percentage point (0.49%) of the country risk level, according to the EMBI, during a very short period.

Enterprise class firewall has been installed on all Thetaworld Dedicated Web Servers serving customer’s homepages and web sites. Any potential attackers will be blocked from the access as soon as we discover the security break attempt.

GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

0. PREAMBLE

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to
assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially.
Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way
to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible
for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.  It
complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
license designed for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
software does.  But this License is not limited to software manuals;
it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book.  We recommend this License
principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that
contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be
distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice grants a
world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that
work under the conditions stated herein.  The "Document", below,
refers to any such manual or work.  Any member of the public is a
licensee, and is addressed as "you".  You accept the license if you
copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission
under copyright law.

(more…)

Thetaworld Webmail is a web-based e-mail service that lets you send and receive email in total security. E-mails and their attachments, are encrypted using GnuPG (PGP) standard algorithms. These algorithms, combined with Thetaworld’s unique key management system, offer users unrivalled levels of security. Thetaworld Webmail’s security is end-to-end; messages are encrypted before leaving the sender’s computer and remain encrypted until after they arrive on the recipient’s machine, where the contents are automatically decrypted. Thetaworld Webmail’s encryption works automatically, transparently and seamlessly, requiring no specialized computer skills or knowledge. Encrypting a message is as simple as clicking a mouse.

Too many Internet users assume that all electronic information is safe from prying eyes. They could not be more wrong. All electronic messages are sent through a system of routers and servers. At points along this path, email messages are logged and may even be stored on backup tapes that are kept for years. These processing and storage points are the weak links in the chain, for this is where your messages, business transactions or credit card numbers can potentially be retrieved, read and misused. Every time you send email, you trust your messages and privacy to nameless and faceless individuals or organizations that frequently have no guidelines and no concerns for your privacy or security. A typical clear text e-mail message is no more secure than a holiday postcard sent through the public postal system. By contrast, Thetaworld Webmail System keeps your online communications private and secure. Not even a Thetaworld employee with access to our servers can read your encrypted email, since each message is uniquely encoded before it leaves your computer. A Thetaworld Webmail account lets you communicate in total security with any other person which uses PGP system else in the world.