Business chamber touts home delivery as first  restart step

Economic sectors where there is less risk of transmission and with low public contact should be allowed to function in the midst of the pandemic caused by Covid-19 said  Panama’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture on Sunday, April 3.

 The chamber’s president Juan de la Guardia said that his union has already held talks with officials from the ministries of Health and Commerce and Industries about the gradual opening of activities in the country.

He said that such a restart would be in sectors that commit to doing so by complying with strict general and specific protocols approved by the authorities.

“Our union has witnessed how in a short time the world and Panama have been converted and have advanced in the migration towards digital coexistence,” said the chamber’s leader.

During the quarantine, it has been evident how producers, supermarkets, pharmacies, and restaurants have transformed their business models and incorporated digital platforms for the home delivery of orders at home, which has minimized the risk of crowding and limiting the circulation of consumers.

For all these reasons, the Chamber of Commerce proposes that other businesses be allowed to operate through “electronic commerce, offering their products on equal terms and opportunities with international sales businesses, from whose digital platforms they sell goods that have not stopped entering the country and deliver to the home. ”.

De la Guardia said that the move would represent a measure of reactivation of jobs without crowds, solving basic needs of citizens at a lower risk of contagion of the coronavirus.