The Minister of the Presidency has announced the suspension of the debate on a reform designed to punish those who illegally extract mineral resources.
A press release from the Presidency of Panama reads:
The Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy Papadimitriu, in agreement with the president of the National Assembly, Hector Aparicio, announced the suspension of the debate on the mining bill which sought to revive the authority of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici) regarding sanctions against those who illegally extract mineral resources.
The 43 buses which will join the new Metro Bus system, arrived the Panamanian port of Manzanillo.
The arrival of the 43 buses from Colombia, add to the first 11 units which entered the country a week ago.
These 54 buses form the first group of 120 units required to start operations in the South Corridor, planned for late December.
In the next 10 days or so, said Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy Papadimitriu, the new system will begin operating in the South Corridor and in January of next year, it will change the entire public transport fleet which uses the Northern Corridor.
‘Metro Bus Panama’, one of the consortiums bidding for designing and operating the project, has proposed a “bus leasing system”.
On May 26, three consortiums submitted their proposals for ‘Metro Bus’, a public transportation system. The bid by ‘Grupo Express’ was priced at $275 million, the one by ‘Transporte Masivo de Panamá’ at $269 million, and ‘Metro Bus Panama’ presented the lowest priced one at $30 million.
According to the new schedule, companies interested in developing and operating the new public bus transportation system called “Metro Bus” must submit their proposals on May 26.
The Executive Transport Commission changed the bidding rules to allow the participation of more companies, in response to a request from international consortiums interested in the project.
The company hired to assess the nations’ agricultural production will deliver its report on June 4.
Such report will detail how much of each good is sown in every region of the country, and will be a key supply for writing the bidding rules for selecting the company that will develop, build and manage the project.
The contract to build and manage the project for 10 to 15 years will be awarded by December 2010.
The government will proceed to publish the bidding rules, hoping to award the concession by March 2010.
The announcement was made by Presidential minister Jimmy Papadimitriu, who explained that "... this means that by March 2011, the new operator will have renewed the entire bus fleet, marking the end of the 'Red Devils' era [colloquial name for traditional buses]".
Public transportation will use the satellite positioning system Global Positioning System (GPS).
Jimmy Papdimitriu, minister of the Presidency, said the government will pay the $150 installation cost, but each transporter will be responsible for its maintenance.
"The objective is to keep track of speeds and routes traveled by the buses," told the minister to Prensa.com.