Alberto Vallarino Clément
Alberto Vallarino Clément, (Panama City, April 2, 1951) is a Panamanian engineer, businessman and president of Grupo VerdeAzul, S.A. since 2011.[1] For the elections of May 2, 1999, Vallarino was the presidential candidate for Acción Oppositora, which emerged from the alliance of four opposition groups, including Partido Demócrata Cristiano.[3] During his tenure as head of the ministry, Panama won in 2010 the award of Investment Grade of three risk rating agencies, over a period of time of 90 days:[10] on March Fitch Ratings upgraded the qualification of Panama, allowing the nation to achieve the Investment Grade Category for the first time;[11][12][13] on May Standard & Poor's Ratings Services also upgraded Panama's rating to Investment Grade, due to the prospects of moderate deficit and the expectations of economic growth;[14] meanwhile, on June Moody's awarded Panama with the Investment Grade, due to the "significant improvement" in the country's fiscal policies and a solid economic growth.[15] Also, during Alberto Vallarino's period as minister, Panama managed to be excluded from the list of tax havens by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in July 2011,[16] as well as being removed from "the list of countries which identified Panama as an uncooperative tax haven, as is the case of Mexico, France, Italy and others", in the words of Vallarino.[3] While he was part of Banistmo, Vallarino established and directed Valores del Istmo, the corporate social responsibility arm of the bank.