Nicomedes Frias G.
Today I will refer to several aspects of the government administration that I do not agree with but I try to understand, as well as some actions of the National Government that in our opinion should be analyzed or transformed.
First of all, I express my concern about the growth of the Panamanian debt, which according to reports from the Ministry of Economy and Finance until the first quarter of this year already reached more than US$42.8 billion. In fact, this figure exceeds that of the previous year by more than US$2 billion.
The issue of indebtedness is logically linked to the pandemic that put the world in trouble, however, this should not be an excuse to borrow at all times, which in turn increases the debt.
Even so, I recognize that these loans through investments in vaccines, personnel and other logistics, helped a lot to prevent the virus and save lives. If it is for it, it is perfectly, no way. But the rest must be highly analyzed, measured and determined in its scope of time.
What I do not agree with is that the rest of the loans that Panama requests, do not invest them to activate our already hit economy, the intention is that the money is the motivator so that the money returns in a certain way. Be careful with paying subsidies with that money, there is a 100% loss.
Now, subsidies are not bad, but we must be clear that they are unsustainable. Until now, Panama exceeds US$2.9 billion in subsidies per year. This figure will surely increase once the agreements of the Single Dialogue Table for Panama are finalized.
In our opinion, each subsidy must have an end period, must have an objective and must be measured. It is these three aspects, I am referring to time of completion, objective and measurement, in which the Government fails in all three. Probably afraid of eliminating, analyzing and measuring them knowing that the political cost of doing so would be extremely high.
However, the subsidy is not an acquired right, it is simply an aid granted by the Government to certain citizens, mainly in order to provide access to basic goods and services, but be careful, it should not be permanent, I repeat “There is no bed for so many people.”
I will only give one example, in the case of unemployment benefits, established since times of pandemic, I begin to think that it is the key to dissuade social improvement or efforts to get a job, parodying it would be like: “we have to teach these people to fish, do not give him the fish”.
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