President exits Colon chaos for Asia trip

While chaos reigns in Colon, and cabinet ministers insist that the government will not back down on its plans to sell off Free Zone lands. President Martinelli boarded the presidential jet and headed for Japan.

He returned from a visit to Germany on Thursday where, while meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he announced a plan to introduce the Euro alongside the US dollar and the Balboa as legal currency in Panama..
Accompanied by first lady Marta Linares de Martinelli and a tam of cabinet ministers, he left Saturday, Oct. 20, for Tokyo, Japan, to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko.
Martinelli is also scheduled to meet with the Japan Business Federation, and participate in a working lunch with the Panama-Japan Business Cooperation Committee and the Latin American Society. He will also meet with the president of Nippon Airways, Shinichiro Ito, and the Japan Shipowners' Association
On October 24 he will fly to Vietnam to meet President, Truong Tan Sang and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
His agenda also includes a meeting with President of the National Assembly of Vietnam The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong and will participate in a wreath laying at the Monument of Heroes and Martyrs in the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
He will be accompanied on the trip by Foreign Minister Rómulo Roux, Minister of Canal Affairs, Roberto Roy, the Administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority, Roberto Linares, and the director of the Foreign Ministry Foreign Policy, Juan Carlos Espinosa.