MiCultura will integrate Santa Ana and El Chorrillo into Casco Antiguo's Master Plan

Panama, 9 March 2020. The Ministry of Culture will propose a Master Plan for Casco Antiguo in the coming months with a number of components dedicated to the economic and tourist reactivation of Panama's historic centre.

During the participation of the Minister of Culture, Carlos Aguilar Navarro, in the seventh tourist office of the good governance of President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, the incumbent explained that the implementation of this Master Plan will include the adequacy of the site and its relationship with the rest of the historic centre, with the surrounding areas of Santa Ana and El Chorrillo, "that have to be part of the economic and tourist success that currently represents San Felipe."

Moreover, at the inter-agency meeting, information was provided about progress achieved through the Casco Antiguo Advisory Bureau, with participation from Executive Body and local governments as well as community representatives on issues such as social housing, mobility, security and environment and sanitation.

As part of these advances, we confirmed the start at Casco Antiguo of the program "Recipes for Your Future" run by ANCON with public and private partners and the participation of the Ministry of Culture and the Urban and Domiciliary Seat Authority.

Fernando Diaz Jaramillo, director of the Office of Old Casto (OCA) at MiCultura, reported that during 2020 he will conduct a program of primary consolidation of the Santo Domingo Convent, the Balute Hand Tiger, the Company of Jesus and the complex of the Plaza de France, Las Bóvedas and Paseo Esteban Huertas, which will end with a continuous maintenance plan that will prevent these goods from being damaged again.

With regard to social housing issues in the sector, Diaz highlighted the physical advancement of about 20% of the work of the Casa 18 de Deciembre for 22 families of San Felipe, and the Rehab designs of the Casa Rosada for 9 families with 2 local neighborhood trade.

Similarly, with regard to the mobility at Casco Antiguo, information was published about the start of the works of signalling areas of loading and unloading for goods from shops and about the strengthening of traffic monitoring with the presence of the National Police's Transit Operations Section to uphold the pedestrian tourist route with boulders, operations of Municipal Monitoring of the Municipality of Panama to cover the issue of "good care" and the increase of two to three daily frequencies of collection of garbage and the addition of a night shift of supervision by the Authority of Urban and Domicite Aseus and of information and of information and of information about the collection and information about and information about how to avoid and information about and information about and information about information about information about and information about and information about how to conduct and information about information about and information about information about information about information about how information about and information about and information about and information about and information about and information about information about information about and information about information about information about and information about information about information about information about information about information about and information about and information about and information about information about information about information about and information about information about information about information about information about information about information about information about and information about information about information about

Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Panama Sanitation Programme, Ing. Rafael Díaz presented the progress that has been achieved to improve the health and environmental conditions of the population, and emphasized that by the end of 2020, 75% of the waste water will be treated in the metropolitan area by regaining the conditions of the main tributists from the Casco Antiguo sector to part of Tocuman.

He explained that by 2024, we have been planning to complete with the construction of the Main Collector of the Matannillo River, which will have the capacity to transport the waste waters that have been put into that basin.

For his part, the manager of the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP), Ivan Eskildsen, emphasized the projection of Panama's tourist potential by referring to its natural wealth, recognised by scientists from the Smithsonian Institute of Tropical Research (STRI), and the vision of empowering the country as a long-term world class tourist destination, underpinned by sustainable development.