| Chinchilla travels to Panama to discuss Honduras, foreign investment |
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| By Chrissie Long Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net |
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| President Laura Chinchilla made a day trip to Panama City Tuesday for a meeting of the Central American Integration System (SICA), where she met with regional presidents to discuss foreign investment opportunities and restoring Honduras to the regional organization. Honduras was suspended from SICA after a military coup removed its elected president on June 28, 2009.
According to a statement on the Casa Presidencial website, while in Panama, Chinchilla spoke with the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak about boosting security measures. Lee pledged to support Central America in the training of its security forces, a step that will be included in a memorandum of understanding that is being negotiated between South Korea and the region’s governments. Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli said the relationship between Central America and South Korea could draw investment from powerful Korean corporations such as Samsung, LG, Kia and Hyundai. The meeting was Chinchilla’s first appearance before SICA as president of Costa Rica. During her trip, she also met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who attended the SICA meeting as an observer. Berlusconi was in Panama promoting greater economic ties between Italy and the region. |
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Archive for June, 2010
| Chinchilla sets financial goals, calls Costa Rica an ‘economic miracle’ |
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| By Chrissie Long Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net |
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| The Chinchilla administration on Monday announced financial goals for the next four years, saying it aims to achieve $9 billion in foreign investment and $17 billion in exports.
“Costa Rica has been one of the most successful countries in Latin America in terms of foreign investment,” said President Laura Chinchilla, calling her country an “economic miracle.” Chinchilla said that for each million dollars of foreign investment, at least 17 direct jobs are created. “We have to understand that a united platform in favor of foreign investment and production of exports gives us not only access to markets, but also better levels of competition and higher economic welfare,” she said. Foreign investment has increased an average of 12 percent each year since 1990, but fell by 34 percent during the crisis year of 2009. Former President Oscar Arias is credited with a 132 percent overall increase in foreign investment during his second four-year term, which ended this year. Foreign Trade Minister Anabel Gonzaléz pointed to the telecommunications, tourism and energy sectors as some of the most promising target areas for investment. Not only is Chinchilla looking to attract more money into Costa Rica, but she is also working to increase the country’s exports by 22 percent during her term. For each percentage-point increase in exports, she said, 7,500 jobs are created. Chinchilla said her administration will focus on improving infrastructure, streamlining regulations and continuing to educate the labor force to meet the target goal, which she stressed has been brought closer into reach by the recently signed trade agreements with Europe, China and the United States. Direct foreign investment has increased an average of 12 percent each year since 1990, but fell 34 percent in 2009.
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Inside Costa Rica
The exchange rate band system that is used to the fix the price of the dollar will cease to apply in the country as the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – the Central Bank - moves to a “managed float” system.
That was the announcement yesterday by the Central Bank’s new president, Rodrigo Bolaños, during a press conference, which, until recently the head of the bank, Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez, took the opportunity to announce his retirement after seven years leading the monetary policies of the country, handing over to his successor the sawdust, nails and screws of the bank.
Jokingly, Gutiérrez told Bolaños that the most dangerous of the bank was the sawdust of the sawing of the wooden floors, while the nails and screws are the problems to come along the way.
“The major challenge is to find ways to consolidate the move to a floating exchange rate and to consolidate inflation to one one digit and not the current 10% to 15% range”, said Bolaños.
The new bank president said that from a certain point of view the system of band met its objectives of the Central Bank at the time, maintaining interests rate and inflation low and controlling the amount of money in circulation.
However, this system (bans) is also responsible for so much fluctuations in the price of the dollar, which needs to be stabilized.
Bolaños did not say when the change will occur, for the bank’s board of directors have yet to establish the rules of the intermediation.
“With the managed float system, the Central Bank wants to consolidate its control so that it can fulfill its inflation targets”, said Bolaños.
Outgoing president, Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez, highlighted yesterday his main achievement of his term in achieving a low inflation rate, but regretted not being able to change the bank’s process of intervention.
Costa Rica Tranquility
The 2010 Global Peace Index has been published by Sydney, Autralia-based Institute for Economics and Peace annually ranks 149 countries based on a range of variables, including corruption, crime rates, military spending and access to primary education.
Costa Rica Culture
The GPI commented specifically on Costa Rica’s improved ranking; “Costa Rica’s high ranking in the GPI (it rose 3 places in 2010 to 26th) partly reflects very low scores for almost all its measures of militarisation, in step with the abolition of the country’s army at the end of the civil war in 1948. Costa Rica’s relations with neighbouring countries are adjudged to have improved last year and violent crime was perceived to have fallen to a relatively low level (Cuba continues to receive the lowest score in Latin America for this indicator).”
The Institute for Economics and Peace is an independent not-for-profit research institute dedicated to developing the inter-relationships between business, peace and economic development.Get ready for lightning speed internet service in the coming year as the Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA) retools, investing some us$360 million dollars in infrastructure that will increase connection speed up to 100 times that of today.
Alberto Bermúdez, RACSA’s general manage, says the state institution will offer connections up to 1GB and at an economical price, starting at us$30 a month for the basic service.
Currently, RACSA and ICE offer connection speeds from 128kB to 4Mbps at prices ranging from us$11 to us$30, by way of dial up, cable modem (in conjunction with the cable companies) and ADSL.
The new high speed RACSA connection will first be introduced in the Gran Área Metropolitana (San José), from Rohrmoser to San Pedro.
In Costa Rica, 45% of the population (some 2 million) is connected to the internet.
Currently RACSA competes with its parent company, ICE which provides mobile internet and ADSL and AMNET with its cable internet.
The move by RACSA will force competitors, including ICE, to ajust their prices downward and increase connections speeds as well.
Technology ‘Fundamental’ to Development
Microsoft manager says Costa Rica is on track to become a developed nation
By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net
An often-mentioned goal of President Laura Chinchilla’s administration is to transform Costa Rica into the first “developed” country in Latin America.
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| Powerpoint: Juan Pablo Consuegra, the Microsoft Corporation’s general manager in Costa Rica, discusses the importance of technology and how the company is supporting Costa Rica’s national goals and projects. |
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Francesco Vicenzi | Tico Times
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The recipe for success in achieving that goal will require many ingredients, and one of the most vital of them will be the development of advanced, accessible and reliable technology.
Over the last decade, using computers, cell phones and all-encompassing handheld devices has gone from optional to almost mandatory. Many jobs require knowledge of how to operate a computer, schools teach computer literacy courses, and to roam about without a cell phone is considered almost Precambrian. These days, communication and information are expected to be immediately accessible. Therefore, to be considered as such, a developed country must live up to these standards.
In a speech in Costa Rica in May, Norm Judah, the chief technology officer of the Microsoft Corporation, the world’s leading developer and provider of computer software, commented on today’s high-tech life.
“One of the biggest changes with the Internet has been the immediacy of information,” he said. “If you are trying to find information, whether you are looking for it on your computer or on your phone, you can get it. We have practically done away with the need to go to people to get information. You don’t even have to go to a library to get a reference book. Almost everything is available online.”
Electric Cars Of Costa Rica Adding More Vehicles To Its Line Of Zero Emission VehiclesAs a leading distributor of electric cars and light duty on-road trucks in Costa Rica, Electric Cars of Costa Rica, will now distribute Balgon’s medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles and drive systems, and provide service and parts throughout Costa Rica.
Balqon Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of zero emissions heavy-duty electric vehicles for Class 7 and Class 8 applications, will be making its vehicles available in Costa Rica by way of a dealer agreement.
“Costa Rica has been setting the pace among nations for reducing carbon emissions and has declared the ambitious goal of becoming the first country in the world to be carbon neutral,” said Balwinder Samra, president and CEO of Balqon Corporation. “Electric Cars of Costa Rica has been leading the effort to introduce new zero emissions technologies to Costa Rica and has extensive experience in NEV inner city delivery vehicle markets.”
“In addition to introducing all-electric medium and heavy-duty trucks for transportation of goods and services, we plan to jointly develop both the new and conversion vehicle markets in Costa Rica by providing our proprietary drive system and high-capacity lithium-ion battery packs for use in various vehicle platforms,” said Samra.
James Middlebrooks, president and founder of Electric Cars of Costa Rica, commented: “We are excited to deliver to Costa Rica Balqon’s extensively tested and successfully commercialized zero emissions technology for heavy-duty vehicles. We expect these advanced technologies to be quickly adopted by our existing environmentally-conscious customer base of resorts, distribution warehouses, and inner city distribution companies.”
Costa Rica is ranked first among the Americas and third in the world in terms of the 2010 Environmental Performance Index. In 2007, the Costa Rican government announced plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021.
According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the “greenest” country in the world. Also, according to an October 2009 article published by Summa Magazine, Costa Rica is the world’s fourth largest exporter of high technology due to the fact that nearly half of its sales from manufacturing relate to products developed with proprietary technologies.
Electric Cars of Costa Rica represents the third international dealer agreement Balqon has established since the first of the year. In Febuary, Balqon signed Autoelevadores Yale, a leading distributor of material handling equipment and electric vehicles in Argentina. In March, Balqon signed Industrias IVOR, a distributor of trucks, firefighting trucks and equipment, refuse trucks, and heavy machinery for material handling products in Colombia.
Wealthy Investors Betting on Property, Stocks, Barclays Says
By Sophie Leung
June 2 (Bloomberg) — Wealthy investors globally are avoiding derivatives and hedge funds and turning to property and stocks following the global financial crisis and economic downturn, Barclays Wealth said, citing a survey.
More than half of the investors surveyed said they are more cautious than they were before the crisis, Barclays said in a statement in Hong Kong today. About 2,000 wealthy investors who have more than 1 million pounds ($1.47 million) in investments from 20 countries participated in the survey in February and March, it said.
“The uncertainty around the prospects and timing of the global economic recovery is causing investors to favor” equities and real estate, Joanna Chu, managing director and head of North Asia at Barclays, said in the statement.
Almost 90 percent of the surveyed investors in Singapore said the property market is likely to perform well in the next 12 months, while 68 percent of the Australian respondents said they are positive on equities, according to the survey.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sophie Leung in Hong Kong at sleung59@bloomberg.net
Costa Rica Recovers All Jobs Lost During Crisis
Scott Oliver – June 2010 — We Love Costa Rica
In examining the number of workers who have health insurance with the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (Costa Rica’s Social Security Fund) 57,000 more workers have been employed between September 2009 and April 2010 with private sector showing the strongest improvement, almost 8,000 jobs were lost during the same period in the previous year.
Jobs in Costa Rica – Back on track
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This data includes the private sector, public sector, households with domestic servants and the self-employed who insure themselves with the CAJA
Costa Rica’s Recovery Underway – Only construction remains slow.
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All sectors have shown improvements in the number of jobs created, however the construction sector remains very quiet or ‘muy tranquilo.’.
Our thanks to our friends at La Nación – Costa Rica’s largest Spanish circulation newspaper – for their permission summarize their article and use their charts.
Retire to this “turnkey” fully-furnished 1930sf home with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms situated on a 2 ½-acre property located only minutes from Atenas central. It has amazing mountain views from inside the house or while lounging in the pool.
The small tranquil coffee town of Atenas claims the best climate in the world. Located about halfway between San Jose and the central Pacific beaches, Atenas is peaceful to live in but convenient to the popular shopping and touristy activities.
This home features an open-concept kitchen and living room with high ceilings making it perfect for entertaining. The kitchen has plenty of cupboard space and overlooks the pool.
The living room has plenty of large windows to take in the amazing mountain views and the inviting pool. The newly tiled pool is just what you need to cool off and take in the daily sun that Atenas offers.
The master bedroom has a king size bed and a beautiful en-suite with and attached washroom. The other 2 bedrooms are equipped with double beds and have amazing views. The laundry room has an outside entrance and has plenty of storage space. The large covered terrace has plenty of room for outdoor dining with table and chairs plus the outdoor grill.
Two wooden swing sets offer you the choice of relaxing while taking in the view of the pool or the mountains. The house has a hard-to-get telephone line and is equipped with an ADT alarm system and high-speed internet.
The home currently draws an income as a vacation rental home. Being fully furnished with air conditioning, the home is a very popular short-term rental.
The sale price includes everything including fridge, stove, washing machine, couch, both sofa chairs, dining room table and 6 chairs, outside table and 4 chairs, King size bed, 2 double beds, both wooden swing sets, pots, pans, microwave, dishes, coffee machine, toaster, glasses, and cutlery.
The sale also includes the website that promotes this Atenas home as a rental.
This property is one of the best values in all of Atenas, modern home with big mountain views, fully “turnkey”, on 2 ½ acres, only 2 minutes from Atenas central for $284K.