IS IT WORTH GETTING NATURALISED? By Rigoberto Coronado

Panama is a country known for the diversity of nationalities that converge in its territory. It is something that we Panamanians have seen since we were children. In fact, many Panamanians have friends who remained in Panama due to work or love. It is common to encounter a Chinese owner of a convenience store, or a merchant with a foreign accent in a shopping mall. The above-mentioned situations are but a few examples of the great diversity of cultures in Panama.

However, despite the fact that Panama has a long-standing tradition of welcoming foreigners from all over the world, it has developed labour laws designed to protect Panamanians’ jobs. The labour laws in Panama limit the percentage of foreigners that can work for a company. Several professional licenses are prohibited for foreigners, including medicine and law. We do not intend to pass judgment on the labour laws as appropriate or inappropriate; we only refer to them to inform our readers.

It has been possible to overcome some of these legal setbacks through the promulgation of migratory and labour legislation creating new immigration statuses. For example, foreign university graduates or nationals of a country among those appearing on the list of 48 privileged countries, commonly known as “friendly nations”, are now eligible for one of the new immigration statuses.

Nevertheless, this does not provide a solution for everyone, and much less to those who, despite having one or more university degrees, cannot work in their profession as a result of a law that prevents them from obtaining a license reserved only for Panamanian nationals.

Neither do such legal restrictions provide a solution to the ever growing number of foreign investors who are eager to trade their products in the retail sector, which is another activity reserved for Panamanians by the Constitution. Such persons, quite often pressed by circumstances, may choose to naturalise or become citizens.

This is basic information for lawyers, but it is also good for others to keep in mind that the National Constitution sets out three separate conditions under which a person may request naturalisation:

1. Five consecutive years of residence in Panama

2. Three consecutive years of residence in Panama if there are children born to a Panamanian mother or father or Panamanian spouse in Panama

3. By reciprocity, if the person is a national of Spain or another Latin American country, and fulfils the same requirements for naturalisation of a Panamanian in that country.

In any event, one should bear in mind that the above-mentioned residence needs to be permanent and obtained in accordance with the respective migratory procedures. In addition, proficiency in Spanish and basic knowledge of Geography, Spanish, and Panama Political Organization must be proven through a test given by the Electoral Tribunal. A foreigner seeking naturalisation should note that the National Constitution requires renouncing the nationality of origin. Although an affidavit is used for this purpose, same which is attached to the naturalisation file, those documents need not be presented to the country from which a person renounces. However, it must be taken into account that in some countries renouncing nationality has legal effects, whereas there are no such effects in others.

Naturalisation is usually a lengthy process considering that by law the President of the Republic needs to review such requests, and that the matter itself, due to national security, requires participation of certain government agencies.

As we do not foresee a Constitutional amendment in the near future, and modification of certain laws regulating the subject entails long consultation periods, it may well be wise to start thinking about the naturalisation process as a viable option.

Immigration Services Offered by Mossack Fonseca

Our full suite of immigration services encompass all of the current Panama visa programs for tourists, immigrants, workers, investors, foreigners married to Panamanian businessmen/women, and others. A partial list of the many visa programs we can assist you with includes:

•          Naturalisation as Panamanian Citizen

•          Friendly Nations Visa

•          Pensioner Visa

•          Professional Employment Visa

•          Reforestation Investor Visa

•          Self Economic Solvency Visa

•          Business Investor Program

•          Married to Panama Citizen Visa

•          Parents of Child Born in Panama Visa

•          Tourist Visa

•          Tax Free Processing Zone Investor Program

In addition, we can assist clients with extensions, exit and entry permits, residency, and a host of additional visa, immigration, and other legal services.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact your local Mossack Fonseca office, or email us at rcoronado@mossfon.com or marketing@mossfon.com

Ramesh Shivakumaran More Vital Port Management Concepts

Owing to the extent and complexity of operating ports, there are still remaining concepts Gulftainer Company Limited shares to its website guests who include owners, investors, workers and clients of ports around the world. These principles involve specific requirements for port managers to consider in operating port facilities. Gultainer’s almost four decades of experience in port management and interacting with other port management companies has allowed it to expand its own knowledge and capability in the industry.

Here are some vital concepts worth considering:

1. Understanding the responsibility for and nature of marine operations allows port managers to recognize the special skills needed to operate ports. Some of these particular tasks include conservancy, dredging, proper use of navigation aids, navigation control techniques and other functions related to the industry. One almost has to have direct experience in the tasks mentioned above in order to truly appreciate the value and purpose of these functions. Many, if not all, boat captains once worked as a young sailor or a first mate before given the daunting task of ship pilot. So with running ports; one needs to have his hands dipped into one of the menial tasks of the business first in order to fully understand the significance and importance of the whole operation.

2. Understanding the management of cargo operations on board and ashore will provide port managers a working knowledge of the dynamic requirements of the business. In connection with this, one also has to appreciate the vital importance of preventing traffic and cargo congestion within the port environment to achieve a smooth operation. Nothing can mess up a port more easily than the lack of coordination and loss of time arising from machinery breakdown and worker inefficiency. Maintaining a ship-shape company requires proper training and regular monitoring of employee skills and morale.

3. Fully understanding the value of safety management provides port managers the capacity to establish a risk-free environment for workers and clients. Use of heavy equipment and moving of large cargoes and transport vehicles require utmost care and skills on the part of operators and also managers. Working as a team, safety for all concerned will be achieved according to well-established safety measures learned and developed through many years of experience.

4. Completely appreciating the importance of security to prevent terrorism, illegal immigration, theft and smuggling reduces the occurrence of illegal and criminal acts perpetrated by insiders as well as outsiders. Such activities are deemed unavoidable in many port terminals all over the world. Syndicates thrive because corruption breeds among discontented workers and petty criminals among employees who may conspire with criminals or terrorists to gain personal benefits. Providing tight security protection and safeguards is demanded of port managers, without any exception or excuse.

5. Finally, port managers must understand the role of trade unions and other labor organizations including the ITF to be able to appreciate the needs of workers and their demands for certain benefits or concessions from the company. Bargaining with these unions and organizations fully armed with the facts and figures will help ease tensions and alleviate unprofitable work stoppages and violent confrontations which sometimes happen anywhere where there is labor dispute.

Gulftainer is aware of all the issues involved in port management; after all, it has been in the business for 39 years already. The social, legal, political and economic issues that revolve around operating these ports can easily beset and stall the unprepared, the uninitiated and the unappreciative company. All these dimensions exist because the company is dealing with real-life conditions that affect the survival of not one company or a few individuals but millions of lives located in many cities and nations of the world.

Ramesh Shivakumaran and Gulftainer has made it its business to provide service that covers and resolves all these issues for the benefit of all people concerned.

The Hiring Guru: Meir Ezra And "Good People"

Since releasing my book, The Naked Interview: Hiring Without Regret, I've spoken to many clients and business owners about the topic of hiring and retaining great people. One colleague I recently reviewed the subject with is Meir Ezra, a successful businessman and consultant, based in the Tampa, FL area.

Among his accomplishments, Ezra established and grew a company to $100 Million in revenues in just three years. He has a wide range of experience in many fields, is a successful inventor with several registered patents and has donated millions of dollars to charitable organizations.

Ezra intelligently pointed out that when it comes to hiring, many business owners overly concern themselves with finding what they refer to as "good people". He believes this is too broad of a general notion. Of course, it's important we work with good people, but in business, what we really need to have on our team are people who are productive, first and foremost.

Identifying candidates who will be productive on your team is critical to a successful hire and something I cover in Chapter 6: The Interview where I ask Has This Candidate Produced Results?

It is vital to check the candidate's ability to achieve results. Is the prospect able to translate his or her knowledge into definite results of value? You need to know about that person's earlier products. Then to effectively verify this, check references after the interview.

Another thing Meir Ezra emphasizes when it comes to hiring is how much responsibility there is on the employer to make sure the new hire is given everything they need to become a productive member of the team. This comes down to well-documented job responsibilities and effective training. Your new team member needs to understand not only what their job is, but exactly how to do it successfully. This needs to be drilled until they are competent and confident in their abilities. Furthermore, your new team member needs to understand the overall organizational structure, its purposes and goals and how they can best contribute to those ends.

Finally, like everyone in a successful organization, your new team member needs something to be measured by. Identifying the specific actions they are responsible for taking and what they need to produce is critical. This takes the guesswork out of productivity, giving your new hire and management the ability to quantify production.

Properly identifying successful candidates, training them, monitoring their statistics and optimizing production are areas I work on with many of my coaching clients on an ongoing basis. When all of these areas are carefully managed, the results are outstanding. Staff morale and retention increase dramatically and profitability is maximized.

I introduce how a standardized process can increase your results in this area in my free video series at HiringAcademy.com.

It's great getting input from successful businessmen like Meir Ezra and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. Please leave your own comments about hiring below, sharing things you've found effective or questions you may have. I read all the feedback I receive and respond as well.

Meir Ezra Business Control - The TM Matrix

In today’s complex and fast world, real time information is key for success. As knowledge is the only true power and is actually a controlling factor in your income, there is yet no tool today that provides a real-time picture of what is really going on in the organization at any given time.

Therefore, quite often, due to lack of information, executives and staff act on rumors, opinions and wrong data. The results are all around us – failure. One out of a hundred companies survives their first five years of operation...

The Matrix provides a real-time, comprehensive, clear and accurate picture of what exactly is going on in an organization (at all levels) while getting updated automatically without any human intervention! With the Matrix, you are able to do correct workload leveling, find problematic areas and actually predict the future of your organization and much more…!

 

The TimeMaker Matrix represents a revolutionary concept in organization management.

Meir Ezra: "It's Not My Job!"

According to an Inc. magazine survey, most executives hate hearing this statement: "It's not my job."

The same survey found most employees hate it when they are pulled off to do someone else's job.

For example, the employees of a famous restaurant in are members of a labor union. They dislike doing other people's work so much that their union contract covers this point. "We will not do anyone else's job."

So if someone drops food or dishes on the floor, the food servers, busboys and cooks may not clean up the mess. The restaurant manager must either clean the mess or call in a janitor.

The restaurant owner said, "I was eating with a group of friends to celebrate my wife's birthday when a waiter dropped a bottle of wine. He just looked at the mess and walked away. No one would clean it up because of the union contract. So I got up from my meal, grabbed a mop and cleaned up the wine while the restaurant employees, and my friends, all watched."

Another restaurant has the opposite problem. These employees are not union members and do not have a union contract, but the place is a mad house.

You walk in and see a full restaurant, but no workers. Everyone is off doing something else. The chef comes out of the bathroom, notices you standing there and yells at a busboy to help you. The busboy wipes his hands, grabs two menus and takes you to a messy table. The hostess runs over and helps the busboy clean up while you watch. Your waitress runs by to answer the telephone. Everyone is doing all the jobs.

So which approach is best? "No one may do other people's jobs" or "Everyone should do all the jobs."

Of course, neither approach is correct.

Book Review: China and the Overseas Chinese

In every country and every city, there will always be a China town. These streets are not only famous for its Chinese people and food (which is obvious, needless to say) but also of its loud atmosphere and tradition and culture which makes them familiar both in developing and already developed nations. If you would want to go to Asia, just go to the nearest China town near you and you can already experience the vividness of Asian vibe.

In cases like these, questions and complaints rise as to how Chinese people have migrated into other countries and multiply that fast. Almost all countries have their own race of Chinese people. Since they are the most populous nationality in the world, it is not that surprising to have a widespread of their people and culture in every town.

Glen Peterson, a writer and professor at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada wrote one of the books that depict the migration of Chinese culture and people to other countries and building their own persona there. Chinese people do not adapt just like other migrants do when they are in a different country. They merely build their own foundation and make their identity known.

China and Overseas China is a book which, as the title suggest, introduce a group of people from the People’s Republic who are known formally and collectively as “domestic overseas Chinese”. The "domestic overseas Chinese" are made up of family members of emigrants, emigrants and their descendants who "returned" to China after 1949, and students who went to China after 1949 in order to pursue higher education. The book examines the construction of state policies toward domestic overseas Chinese and looks at their varied and often tumultuous, sometimes tragic experiences during the 1950s and 1960s, up to and including the Cultural Revolution.

Glen Peterson with his group of fellow researchers has spent months in deep study of the culture and the factors affecting the migration of Chinese people. The hard work has been worth it when the author was given a medal of recognition from the Indonesian Studies Society in Hong Kong held at Jakarta, Indonesia in April, 2014.

As a historian and professor, so many reviews has also been shown pertaining Mr. Peterson’s technique in incorporating history, culture and studies to classes. His students have pointed Peterson as popular among old and new students alike in the University of British Columbia where he has been teaching social and cultural history and studies.

Atchley & Associates LLP: Business Consulting

Atchley & Associates' professionals are here to help your business. Thanks to our professionals' extensive knowledge, we are able to help and advise your organization in different aspects such as develop improvement plans, provide business solutions, and help you succeed in your industry.

What can we do for you?

• Fraud Prevention

• Litigation Support & Forensic Accounting

• Mergers & Acquisitions

• Business Valuation

• Benchmarking & Profit Improvement

• Systems Design & Compensation Formulas