Panamanian Embassy celebrates 200 years of independence

THE Panamanian Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago celebrated Panama’s two-hundredth anniversary of its independence from Spain on November 28.

At the official flag-raising ceremony marking the occasion, UTT pan music duo Tyeesha Alexander and Aquila Pereira made history by being the first musicians to ever play the
Himno Istmeño – the national anthem of Panama – on the steelpan, a release from the embassy said on Thursday.

The release said this example of “pan music diplomacy” in TT started a “digital creative economy movement” to mobilise over 280 million people in Central America and Caribbean to implement the UNCTAD Bridgetown Accord for economic recovery through digital creativity.

In addition, Panama and TT will be forever known as the first countries to implement the UNCTAD Bridgetown Accord on the bicentennial anniversary, the release said.

The release said since Caribbean tourism revenue fell by over 58 per cent in 2020, the need to establish digital creative networks to link Latin America, and the Caribbean through Panama and TT is critical for the implementation of the UNCTAD Bridgetown Accord adopted by UN members to drive the US$3 trillion creative economy through digitalisation.

Maltie Cowie, executive assistant to Panamanian ambassador Selvia Miller Palmer, in her speech said Panama, with over 4.3 million people, can economically energise the rest of Central America and the Caribbean due to “deep ancestral ties between the two regions.”

“Now that UNCTAD has declared the creative economy as one of the best paths to recovery through digitalisation, the rich symbiosis between Panama and TT can be mutually exploited to connect the people and places of Latin America and the Caribbean with millions of friends, families, fans, firms and financers in the diaspora using digital creative networks.

“With climate action trade, sports, music and cultural partnerships these ties can economically revive Latin America Caribbean countries using the UNCTAD Bridgetown Accord as a digital creative economy framework.”

She said many Panamanians are descendants of Caribbean immigrants (mainly from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad) who built the Panama Canal over 100 years ago.

“Ambassador Selvia Miller Palmer, is one of the descendants of those Caribbean workers, without whom the construction of the Panama Canal and the subsequent success of Panama would have been virtually impossible.”

The release also said building digital creative industries for competitive climate action will transform the region into digital competition economies ideal for digital event tourism online or offline.

European Union Ambassador Peter Cavendish was among the guests present at the ceremony.