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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Francesco Vicenzi | Tico Times

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.”

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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.

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

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.

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.

Inside Costa Rica

Some 26,000 new jobs were created during the first three months of the year according to figures released by the Banco Central (Central Bank), based on the number of workers signed up with the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (Social Security).

According to the statistics, employment grew 1.4% in January, 2% in February and 3% in March.

The numbers, says Arnoldo André, of the Cámara de Comercio, are a result of increasing confidence by employers who is predicting thousands of more jobs being created in the coming months.

The Central Bank noted that the majority of the new jobs created were in the services industry.

Job growth, though not as high as in services,  also occurred in the agriculture, construction and manufacturing sector.

Inside Costa Rica
In the first course of its kind, 250 staff members of the Ramada Plaza Herradura in San José, Costa Rica, completed a two day training program, “Caring for the Medical Tourist”, created and delivered in Spanish by Medical Tourism Training.

The hotel staff enjoyed the mix of information, demonstrations, discussions, and questions and answers, all aimed at helping them deliver better customer service to the hotel’s medical tourism guests.

Hotels and resorts in Costa Rica are catering to medical tourists as a way to diversify and expand their client base while increasing revenues by offering services to guests before and after they receive medical treatment.

The required changes to customer care vary depending on the type of medical care guests receive. The challenges and opportunities offered by serving medical tourists require careful planning and thorough preparation. Preparing staff members is a key factor to successfully serve the needs of medical tourists.

The two-session, interactive introductory program is based on real-world scenarios.

Each session is two to two and one-half hours long and covers topics including:
• Introduction to medical tourism and medical tourists;
• Cultural awareness and cultural norms;
• Providing customer care pre-op and post-op;
• Impact of staff behavior – body language, eye contact;
• VIP customer care service for medical tourists;
• Caring for accompanying guests;
• Identifying and handling biohazardous waste;
• Wheelchair assistance;
• Recognizing serious emergencies;
• ABCs of first aid;
• What to do in an emergency;
• What to do after an emergency.

Designed to ensure measurable results, the knowledge check component to the training sessions confirms that the participants are able to identify and recall the key points. A post-training evaluation ensures that the program is meeting the needs of the organization. Following the training the trainers prepare a report containing the results of the program evaluations as well as actionable steps for senior management to improve their medical tourism services.

The training focused on the unique demands of international health travelers and is the first completed by new company Medical Tourism Training. Medical Tourism Training’s affiliated company, healthcare consultancy firm Stackpole Associates, compiles quarterly surveys of the hotel’s current and past guests, of all kinds, to evaluate their awareness of medical tourism and to plan for improved hotel services for medical tourists. The company is developing other training programs designed to have a broader appeal to healthcare providers, agencies and others in the medical tourism field.

Medical Tourism Training’s Elizabeth Ziemba says that healthcare providers lose customers because they are not meeting the service expectations of international health travelers, “Prompt and polite communications are essential to success in this sector that is relationship driven. Every phone call or e-mail that goes unanswered or employees that react poorly to foreign customers lose business. Our program train staff, instilling effective, proven skills that can transform relationships with medical tourists.”

The company is also offering “Medical Tourism Guests: The Right Choice for your Hotel or Resort?”

This 90-120 minute presentation is designed for senior management teams that are expanding services for medical tourists and their accompanying guests. It addresses the planning and management issues vital to creating and tailoring services for the medical tourism market.

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net

Central America and the European Union (EU) are officially free-trade partners. On Tuesday, the six countries of Central America and the 27-member EU bloc signed a free-trade and cooperation agreement in Madrid, Spain that will slash tariffs on key items such as bananas, milk, automobiles, textiles, rice and sugar.

In Agreement: European and Central American leaders signed an historic agreement between their two trade blocs that left both sides feeling optimistic.

JuanJo Martin | EFE

If the agreement is ratified by Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly, it will be the country’s eighth free-trade deal, with number nine – the agreement with China – also awaiting the legislature’s approval.

“This is one of the first achievements of this government,” said Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla via video conference from Madrid on Tuesday. “ Costa Rica now has access to the biggest markets in the world, including Europe, the U.S. and China.”

The final round of negotiations in Madrid centered on setting satisfactory trading quantities for sugar, cheese, powdered milk, textiles, beef and bananas, as well as assuring the geographic origin of specific products. During the previous round of talks in Guatemala during the first week of May, disagreements over quotas for these products stalled negotiations. The talks began in mid-2007.

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