Consulate General of Panama 
PANAMA----January 16, 2022--- The Panama Ship Registry continues its leadership position worldwide, ranking first among the 10 most important merchant fleets by flag registry and gross tonnage, according to the latest World Fleet Monitor from the Clarksons Research database.
According to the Clarksons platform, Panama had 16% of the world’s maritime fleet at the end of December 2022 with 8,650 registered vessels, which represented 245 million GRT.
The international market and the maritime industry continue to choose the Panama Ship Registry, because it has the support of an entire nation, being a Government Registry, administered by the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), which provides and guarantees to ship owners and their fleets.
In addition, it offers recognized assistance 24/ 7 services to its clients, adding to that the legal security, diplomatic and judicial advocacy differentiates the Panama registry from all others.
It has been serving the world for more than 100 years, with experience and tradition promoting world maritime trade and favoring development, where its experience serves as a key tool in providing quality service to its clients.
The Panama Registry has understood the role it is called upon to play, always seeking to improve in terms of its competitiveness, adaptability, and international compliance. In fact, Panama has improved its retention, increasing it to 31% achieving a percentage growth of 3.4% in the year 2022, impacted by a world crisis, less construction of ships in primarily Panamanian markets and not mention a war, which are social and economic factors directly affecting this particular market.
During the current Administration, international compliance has been prioritized, digitization together with platform improvements, customer services oriented business model, reengineering, modernization of processes, and incentives, aimed at the use of new technologies, environmentally friendly fuels, and ships with good conduct. All these actions have had a positive impact on the quality of our fleet, which from 2019 to date reflects a growth of 27.9 million GRT and the entry of 567 more ships, according to IHS Market data, this is in the middle of the clear-out process, however, the Panama Registry continues its path and continues to introduce its required mechanisms in order to continue to be a service provider to the world.
As part of the Technological Innovation, a significant investment has been made since the beginning of this Administration, in the improvements to the existing registration platforms for the registration of ships and the E-Segumar platform for the issuance of technical certifications of ships, achieving a friendlier and easier experience for the user, as well as the new Maritime Processing System platform and Electronic Ship Registration (REN), a project plan that should continue during 2023.
Panama demonstrates its commitment to the environment, by promoting the construction of ‘Eco Friendly’ ships, with its special incentives for Eco Ship and New Construction, in the same way we seek to encourage the support and investment of companies, so that the economic impact that represents the improvement of ships in environmental issues is less and shared among parties of the present industry.
The expectations of the Registry are positive for 2023, one of our pillars is the modification of Law 57 of August 6, 2008 “General of Merchant Marine”, which advances steadily through a work group made up of various actors of the maritime sector and whose goal is to collaborate together in the comprehensive review of the regulations related to the Panama Ship Registry, to increase its competitiveness.
This review elevated to Country Strategy, seeking onto a clear, transparent legislation foundation, with competitive rates and diligence in the processes, in this way we will achieve sustainable growth activity.
By 2023, the Panama Maritime Authority continues to implement new technologies in all the operational directorates within the Registry, in order to continue providing quality in our service as well as international compliance.
