Article Courtesy from Business Panama

The symphony for Panama’s future

Strategic Synergies

Panama to Showcase a New Trade and Investment Paradigm for the World’s Knowledge-Economy
by Dr. Hana Ayala

President and CEO PANGEA WORLD



From retrospective to perspective

As I explained in the May 2004 issue of Business Panama, the value and the promise of the Tourism-Conservation-Research (TCR) Action Plan I devised for the Republic of Panama are in the synergies created among the vision that guided this project, the national and international endorsements that empowered it, and the original tools (including a “heritage matrix,” a legal framework, and infrastructural and business models) that activated it. I assert that a carefully orchestrated development of those synergies would grant Panama a prominent niche in the global marketplace while transforming Panama’s natural and cultural wealth (i.e., heritage wealth) into the foundation for the nation’s prosperity.

The present article substantiates this assertion, with an emphasis on the novel trade and investment opportunities Panama stands to capitalize as it champions a vanguard economy that nurtures heritage and spearheads knowledge.


International reaffirmation of the TCR strategy as a national opportunity for Panama

The international exposure and recognition of the “TCR” for Panama as a unique “package” of provisions for Panama’s national development and international leadership and prestige have continued to grow since I profiled this project’s overall achievement in the Cornell Quarterly magazine in February 2000. For example, representatives of NASA, the World Bank, and the European Commission and participants from 33 countries were among the invitees at the International Symposium on Digital Earth: Information Resources for Global Sustainability (Czech Republic, September 2003), where I spotlighted Panama in demonstrating “The Art and Power of Welding Science and Heritage in a Knowledge Economy for the 21st Century.” I am honored to quote Dr. Milan Konecny, President of the Symposium’s Organizing Committee and President of the International Cartographic Association: “We all applauded Hana’s passionate account of her professional mission in Panama. We applauded her skill and art to shape each dimension so that it complements and strengthens the others, producing a symphony of opportunities for Panama’s prosperity and international admiration. We envied Panama.”


The symphony for Panama’s future

The pioneer national system of heritage themes the TCR Action Plan produced in Panama is the “libretto” for enhancing Panama’s prosperity in a way that will tantalize and inspire the world. This themed heritage matrix sharply differs from the marketing schemes that simply package multiple attractions in international tourist trade, such as the “Route of White Towns” in Southern Spain. The concept of the TCR Heritage Routes, based on themes that crisscross a country or a region as they interpret and integrate scientific discoveries from new angles, across disciplines, and through time, is the cornerstone of the TCR economic-development platform. Equipped with cutting-edge scientific knowledge contributed in large part by the experts of the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), this platform yielded a Panama-specific web of heritage routes that has endowed Panama with a spectrum of trade and investment opportunities unrivalled in the world. These singular opportunities beg to be fulfilled. But it is imperative that this happens in concert with the TCR’s principle of synergy, which calls for employing the heritage matrix simultaneously as:

a) A framework for consolidating and distinguishing Panama’s conservation efforts within the flagship themed national conservation system. Structured around the TCR heritage themes, Panama’s conservation system will become uniquely dynamic and pro-active. It will intertwine natural and cultural conservation priorities; will gain a direction for future expansion that will systematically strengthen its conservation, research, and economic importance; and will acquire a great interpretive value—a prospective magnet of discovery travel unique to Panama.

b) A foundation for master-planning and developing a national tourism industry second to none. The TCR heritage route matrix pinpoints the best locations for interpretive centers geared towards destination-experience management. It is of particular value to Panama’s nascent resort industry, since it will allow planners and developers to determine the optimum arrangement for portfolios of resorts that would support high-quality heritage itineraries. Moreover, it represents an unparalleled resource for ensuring product quality and investment security to hospitality projects that seek to channel the intrigue of Panama’s nature and culture into the competitive strength of their tourism product, as I highlighted in my tribute to Panama at the 2001 International Hotel Show in New York City.

 Here is an example of the opportunities waiting to be seized. The archipelago of Bocas del Toro has all the attributes of an island paradise. Or it can choose to rise above the rest, without denying the traveler the pleasures of a beautiful island setting. The TCR Action Plan zoomed in on this archipelago as the gateway to The Saga of the Isthmus route, which provides for thrilling expeditions back in time. Sediments saturated with preserved marine fauna and striking coastal exposures, observable on several of Bocas’ islands, offer a rare insight into the evolution of islands and coral reefs. They tell a compelling story of the rising of the Isthmus as a chain of volcanic islands 14 million years ago.

c) A means for elevating Panama’s heritage treasure-trove to an icon of national pride and international admiration. It was an honor to win the world-renown architect Frank O. Gehry for the TCR Action Plan. And it was an inspiration to work with his and the Urbio, SA-led teams of architects, planners, and engineers on equipping the TCR heritage matrix with planning and design solutions that would cement the capacity of the Tourism-Conservation-Research alliance to fuel Panama’s well being. This exercise produced a comprehensive economic, cultural, trade, and transportation development strategy in the context of the Panama Canal, charged with preserving and enhancing in value both historical architecture and nature at the Caribbean and the Pacific mouths of the Canal and tied—via the TCR routes web—to the rest of the country. Seeking to create an emblem for the grand opportunity that the marriage of Gehry’s genius with the TCR-aided empowerment of Panama’s heritage offered to Panama, I proposed a “national heritage interpretive center.” I envisioned this center to revolutionize the concept of a museum as we know it now, by structuring, boosting in value, sharing, and helping protect the entire country’s heritage endowment—something never done before. In a report titled “A Trilogy for the Millennium” (February 1999), I wrote:
“It will be a landmark…likely to be unrivalled in the impact it will have on the national economy…Architectural brilliance is only one dimension of the prospective national and international impact of this landmark development. Another dimension is value-adding to Panama’s heritage resources that the center’s exhibits will be master-planned to accomplish through a themed portrayal of Panama’s natural and cultural wealth. The TCR System of Heritage Routes, which establishes the most prominent ecological, geological, cultural and other relationships that pervade the one-of-a-kind heritage identity of Panama as the bridge of the world, will serve as a matrix.
Colon’s historic waterfront, Sherman/San Lorenzo, and Amador (Panama City) are the trilogy’s three anchor locations, echoed in the three models of interpretive facilities designed by Gehry for the TCR Action Plan. To me, the trilogy’s emphasis on restoring and revitalizing Colon as a heritage jewel in its own right and on making San Lorenzo’s cultural and biological treasures key beneficiaries, jointly with the local communities now plagued by extreme poverty, of Panama’s transformation into a “heritage destination par excellence” is a crucial component of the development strategy shaped via the Gehry-Urbio involvement with the TCR for Panama.

d) A blueprint for enhancing Panama’s international image while attacking poverty throughout the country. The TCR heritage matrix is not only eminently marketable; it doubles in value as a potent incentive for investing smart while making a tremendous difference in places with the greatest social needs. An important finding made by this nation-wide valuation of Panama’s heritage reserves is that the majority of the TCR heritage themes coincide with areas of greatest poverty throughout the country. This affords a remarkable opportunity for attracting environmentally and culturally sound investments where they are needed the most.


Making it happen: A resource

I founded the PANGEA WORLD corporation to serve as a catalyst and symbol, seeding the promise of the TCR economic-development model throughout the world—and keeping the Panama “pilot” alive. In each country, the definition and fulfillment of this promise will be distinctive, because of the uniqueness of the country’s natural and cultural legacies and because of the creativity that will position, value, and distinguish these legacies in the context of national development and international exposure. The TCR model is now PANGEA®’s, enriched and branded as TCR Leadership® and TCR Vanguard® and reinforced with implementation capacity.

The team. In its core team of Fellows and Expert Advisers, this enterprise already possesses frontier expertise in operating at, and streamlining, crossroads of academic, legal, business, and government affairs. Highlighting a few names, I wish to present Dr. Richard Nicholson, now Honorary President and Fellow of PANGEA WORLD (who is the former Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Publisher of Science and also served as Executive Secretary of the US President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science), PANGEA®’s Fellow Dr. Anthony G. Coates (former Director for Scientific Research Programs of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.), and two of PANGEA®’s Advisers: Dr. Cathryn Campbell (a Partner in an international law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery and one of the top patent attorneys in the US) and Gary H. Hunt (a Partner in California Strategies, which specializes in “navigating a course through the maze where business interests and governmental policies and procedures intersect”). PANGEA WORLD has a special bond with Panama, exemplified by PANGEA®’s Fellow Dr. Ceferino Sanchez (Panama’s former National Secretary of Science, Technology, and Innovation and a driving force behind the TCR Action Plan for Panama) and by a cooperation agreement signed between Panama’s City of Knowledge and PANGEA WORLD.

The mission of PANGEA WORLD is to fashion science-driven valuation of the world’s heritage wonders into an engine of leadership economies and corporate philosophies. While the emphasis of the existing models of “knowledge economies” is on investments in basic and applied science, PANGEA®’s “knowledge-powered, heritage-nourished economy” complements the existing emphasis with a new emphasis on mobilizing what is likely the world’s largest untapped reserve for wealth creation that favors global conservation (of which Panama holds a major share). This new emphasis centers on showcasing, consolidating, and valuing a country’s pivotal heritage reserves as exclusive knowledge reservoirs for a vibrant sustainable economy and international image. PANGEA®’s key focus is on engineering the international exposure of the nation’s “heritage product” at a level of quality and prestige that will translate into a market position immune to imitation. A special priority is to champion knowledge-fuelled and heritage-benefiting trade alliances among countries that may not rank as likely strategic partners in the traditional scenarios of international trade.


Making it happen: The offer

Building on the foundations laid by the TCR Action Plan, PANGEA WORLD could take Panama directly into the implementation phase. PANGEA® offers to assist Panama to:

1) Project Panama’s unique heritage endowment into the nation’s development goals, sectoral policies, investment promotion strategies, and novel international trade alliances in a fashion that empowers Panama to command an unrivalled niche and image in the global market;

2) Enhance the Canal’s worth to Panama and internationally in a combined Canal-watershed perspective—a perspective fit for the 21st century in which the ideal of “sustainable development” replaces that of “development”;

3) Use the fascinating ecological, geological, cultural, and other relationships that tie the watershed’s heritage bounty with the heritage riches of Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, Darién, and other parts of Panama to position and employ the Canal-watershed resource as a catalyst for national development that
* Prioritizes economic growth with major social and environmental dividends,
* Favors the country’s poorest regions,
* Fashions knowledge-based conservation of Panama’s natural and cultural capital into a pillar of the strength and competitiveness of the national economy, into a cornerstone of Panama’s international prestige, and into a major source of dignified employment for the neediest, and
* Prompts—through the aforementioned priorities—mobilization of international resources Panama could use to elevate the Canal to its full national and international potential in this 21st “century of knowledge;”

4) Enable supportive business corporations to boost their operation—and dazzle the world—via innovative associations with the jewels of Panama’s and the region’s nature and culture;

5) Translate the strategic advantages posed by Panama’s geography, heritage wealth, and STRI’s frontier research into a
o Platform for growing and augmenting the market value of Panama’s tourism and hotel industry, and for attracting the top quality segment of the cruise ship industry, on the premise of building excellence in destination-experience management, and
o Framework for intertwining Panama’s leisure-tourism enterprise with a multi-sectoral valuation of the country’s natural and cultural assets, thus empowering Panama to avoid the vulnerabilities exhibited by purely tourism developments the world-over;

6) Stimulate the growth of the City of Knowledge as an engine of capacity building for Panama’s—and the region’s—knowledge-powered economy, and promote the City of Knowledge as an ideal site for a flagship institute dedicated to the study of the interface between global trade and the environment; and

7) Guide the international exposure of the accomplishment in substance, elegance, and progression such that it both captivates the region’s and the world’s attention and inspires other countries’ political and business leaders.


Panama is in a singular position to stimulate and capitalize the 21st century economy—an economy that will be driven by knowledge development, innovation, and commercialization. At the same time, Panama is in an enviable position to spearhead an effective integration of conservation and sustainable development priorities with the process of strengthening trade and investment relations among the economies of the Americas—an important aspect of the emerging free trade agreements and one which is likely to gain further prominence. This is why PANGEA WORLD arms the leadership platform for Panama with regional and global aspirations, with an emphasis on inviting and distinguishing the involvement of Panama’s business leaders, and with a pledge to foster exemplary business and academic partnerships, investments, and other ties between the United States and Panama. Mindful of a synergy I would love to further, I value and appreciate PanAmCham’s interest in presenting this perspective shaped by my passion about Panama.


I recognize with gratitude Glen Champion, General Manager of the Miramar Inter-Continental Hotel Panama, for advice and editorial counsel in the preparation of this article for Business Panama. Mr. Champion has been an outstanding supporter of my efforts to nurture and protect the TCR opportunity for Panama. I look forward to further strengthening our special relationship that reaffirms my belief that the hotel industry’s leaders can play a crucial role in spearheading the TCR economic-development scenarios at national, regional, and global scales.





[A COMPLEMENTARY NOTE]

A recent release from the Consulate General of Spain in Los Angeles, obtained by Business Panama, offers a testimony to the international praise and collaborations Dr. Hana Ayala continues to attract for the TCR model’s and PANGEA WORLD’s aspiration in Panama and the region. On 3 March 2004, Ambassador José Luis Dicenta, Consul General of Spain in Los Angeles, and Dr. Ayala met at the Consulate General to foment PANGEA WORLD’s activities in Panama and across Latin America. Quoting from a statement written by Ambassador Dicenta on that occasion, “The TCR model and its patron enterprise PANGEA WORLD represent a revolutionary project, which addresses the challenges of a comprehensive economic development while maintaining an ecological respect that is essential in these latitudes. I have always believed in the benefits of this project and the desirability of its application to the development of Latin American countries.”


 

Article Courtesy of Business Panama
The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM)
and Deal Inc.

 

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