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A Political View of Panama
DHL is an internal company with presence in over 220 countries across the world. It has a workforce exceeding 285,000 employees. The company is part of the world’s leading postal and logistics Group, Deutsche Post DHL and encompasses three divisions: DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, Freight and DHL Supply Chain. It specializes on express deliveries worldwide, warehousing services, international mail deliveries and customized and specialized shipping. To further its coverage into panama, it will be noble for DHL to understand the political climate in that country by looking at the history, current socio-political and economic scenarios (Zimbalist and Weeks 42).
Panama borders both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is between Colombia and Costa Rica. This nation in Central America proclaimed its independence from Colombia in 1903. The country was first settled by the Spanish in the 16th century and broke away from Spain in 1821 to join the Republic of Gran Colombia. It later seceded from Colombia in 1903 and signed the famous Panama Canal Zone Treaty. Panama is divided into nine provinces of Bocas del Toro, Coclé, Colón, Chiriquí, Darién, Herrera, Los Santos, Panama and Veraguas (Sabrina, 2014).
The population consists as mestizo and Amerindian ethnic groups with popular languages being Spanish which is official and English. Religion forms a key feature with 94% of the population being Christians. According to the recent (2014) records, the population numbered 3,608,431 with 75% being urban.
The public power emanates from the people and is exercised by three bodies: legislative, executive, and judicial. The President is both the head of state and head of government in a multi-party system. The government exercises executive power and the legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The election are carried out a after every five years in universal system by citizens above 18 years. The judicial service members are appointed by the president. The National Assembly is elected by proportional representation in electoral districts. Presidential elections do not require a simple majority. Its judicial branch consists of Supreme Court of Justice with 9 magistrates and 9 alternates. Magistrates are appointed by the president for 10-year term.
Major political parties include Democratic Change, Democratic Revolutionary Party, Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement, Panamenista Party and Popular Party. Political pressure groups include the Chamber of Commerce, National Council of Organized Workers, National Council of Private Enterprise, National Union of Construction and Similar Workers, Panamanian Association of Business Executives, Panamanian Industrialists Society, Workers Confederation of the Republic of Panama (Zimbalist and Weeks 57-8).
The above current political description notwithstanding, DHL will need to understand the key political problems in Panama. These problems have been associated with lavish spending on the Canal and major public projects. This has affected the government resources flow in delivering public services like water, education, and sanitation and garbage collection. There are complains of favoritism and corruption in delivery of government services. In addition, the company will have to consider the effects of Panamas government heavy borrowing that has increased overall public debt in the recent years (Zimbalist and Weeks 69). This has exposed the country’s economy that is build around transport, banking, and free trade zones. If not then its small economy, connected to the world, will be highly vulnerable to the shifting global economic systems and local political factors such as elections due in 2015.
Works Cited
Zimbalist, Andrew and Weeks, John. Panama at the crossroads: economic development and political change in the twentieth century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.