Unless you live near the ports, you likely do not think much about them. Every city on a lake or ocean has a port, most of us think about the recreational facilities first as we may use them from time to time. Whether it is a marina or walking trails or wharf businesses or ferries, but most of us do not pay attention to who runs the ports. At one time every port was run by a quasi public facility to boost the economic activity of the city. Now days it has changed.

In an article by Ana Swanson of the New York Times News Service, President Trump’s claim that China runs the Panama Canal is false. The Panama Canal is operated by an agency of the Panamanian government. The President of Panama Jose Raul Mulino said Mr. Trump’s claims are false, the government of Panama runs the Canal.

There are issues with China for the Chinese government has invested heavily in building ports throughout the world. Given that China is the world’s largest exporter, private Chinese companies play a major role in shipping and port operations, giving them significant influence over the movement of global goods and strategic positions from which to monitor other countries’ activities.

If you go onto You Tube and examine the Belt and Road Initiative, you will see China has invested in ports in Asia and Africa. The Chinese typically offer assistance to countries, but then all the work is finance and done by Chinese companies. Also on You Tube are wonderful videos of Chinese ports operating with few people.

In the last decade 2 private companies have arisen called DP World based in the UAE and CK Hutchison based in Hong Kong. CK Hutchison is a publicly listed conglomerate whose largest owner is a family of Hong Kong billionaires. One of the divisions of the company is Hutchison Ports PPC which for decades have operated seaports around the world including in Panama. The division operates in 53 ports in 24 countries including the Netherlands, Britain, Hong Kong and Australia.

A recent report by Strategy Risks, an analytics firms, said that no direct links specific to Panama had been found between CK Hutchison and the Chinese Communist Party, however it is believed the company has shared information with various Chinese state-linked entities on business projects.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, just be being successful and growing, the company will be seen as an agent with the government. However, in every business, sometimes the government is wonderful, sometimes it needs to be eliminated and most of the time they work together as their interests intersect. Businesses have their own interests and government has theirs, hopefully it is mutually beneficial than not.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.