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Welcome to the Panama Weekly News Roundup! The last shipment of Canal locks have finally arrived, and construction is pushing forward. Death means more life in the rain forest. And Panama’s latest planned convention center is back on target. Here’s the latest.

Last shipment of locks gates arrives in Panama.

The final large pieces to the puzzle have arrived in Panama, as we move closer towards the completion of the multi-billion dollar Canal Expansion Project. The gates, which are the size of many ships themselves, capped off the set, which began shipping to Panama earlier this year. According to Canal officials, despite delays from their original plan, the expansion should be ready within the next 18 months.

The four gates arrived on board the Post-Panamax vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6 owned by Cosco, after a 25-day voyage from the Port of Trieste in Italy. The four gates arrived to the temporary dock located in the Atlantic side, and will be used two and two in the Atlantic locks and the Pacific locks.�� At end September, the construction of the locks was 77% complete and the expansion, as a whole, had reached 81% completion. “We are now in the homestretch to complete the expansion,” said Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela who was present at the arrival of the gates.

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New convention center back on track

For quite some time now, Panama has been planning a large-scale convention center to be built in the city’s Amador Causeway area, in the southwest section of Panama City. The convention center construction has been stalled for quite some time now, but according to new reports, agreements between developers and the Panamanian government have give it some hope to be back on track.

The industry had hoped that the new center would be up and running in 2015, and attracting large conventions. In August occupancy fell to 56% with the number of tourists is not enough to absorb the 7,000 new built in the city, between 2010 and 2014. In the negotiation between the ATP and the contractor, which is an integrated consortium of companies from Panama, Costa Rica, Spain and Puerto Rico, the original amount of parking did not meet the standard that regulates construction in Amador, so the new government asked for it to be included in the project, bringing parking to 1143.

The contractor’s estimates it will cost over $ 20 million to build additional parking, but eventually the authorities got the companies to have the work included in the price initially agreed. The new structure will have an internal exhibition center (23,871 m2), a building for banquets and restaurants (23,722 m2), a theater (14 001 m2) and an area for external displays (12 786 m2).

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In Panama’s rain forest, death means more life

Panama has one of the world’s most diverse flora and fauna, and some of the deepest rainforests outside of Brazil. This past week, the Washington Post wrote a great article on how killing certain types of seeds can actually help promote growth and sustainability of the forests. Here’s an excerpt on what’s being done to keep the forest thriving, and what it means to the seeds.

Essentially, killing drier seedlings in their cribs creates space, and more space allows more diverse species of trees that can not only survive but grow into leviathans on the wetter side. “They’re allowing more tree species to exist in a given area,” Spear said. The wood and canopy creates a greater habitat for birds and other fauna. They also provide “better water quality, [regulate] carbon in the atmosphere, raw material for medicine and food.”

How seedlings live and die in Panama provides a lesson to conservationists trying to determine how tree canopies will shift as the climate warms. It will inform their understanding of whether trees in some temperate areas can survive in others, before they embark on massive and expensive replanting efforts that are doomed to fail.

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Fiestas Patrias: Panama celebrates its history all through November

Here in Panama, we’re in the midst of a full month of holidays knows as the “Fiestas Patrias”, or “Patriotic Celebrations” in English. It’s a month of national pride, but also a huge month for domestic tourism. In fact, there are 5 national holidays in the month of November, making it the most celebrated month in the country, also representing the end of the rainy season and start of the Summer. Here’s more from our blog:

Though each day represents something different, the one thing that each holiday has in common, is that they represent a major military victory or patriotic achievement. They all represent big steps to Panama becoming independent, and each has its own regional and national significance.

Nov. 3^rd:��Independence From Colombia Day, or “Separacion de Colombia.” Many expats may not know, but Panama was once a part of Colombia, before the US helped leverage military support (1903), as part of the original dealings to obtain rights for the Canal.

Nov. 4^th: Flag Day, or “Dia de la Bandera.” This day is more of a general showing of military pride, and national pride. It’s not as big of a celebration as some of the others, but is still filled with fanfare, music, and parades.

Read more from our blog…