Archive for March 19th, 2008
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
The most recent report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) points out that Costa Rica has the lowest rate of unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the statistics disclosed in Peru, through July 2007, Costa Rica reported a 4.8 percent rate of unemployment, below the ones for 22 other countries. The closest rate is that of Mexico, at 4.9 percent, followed by Chile at 7.1 percent, Panama 7.7 percent, and Argentina, 9.2 percent. The nation with the highest rate of unemployment in Latin America is Colombia, at 12 percent. The ILO report remarks that the Costa Rican rate decreased from 6 percent in 2006 to 4.8 percent last year, and that women were the most favored group. Minister of Housing and War against Poverty Fernando Zumbado pointed out that the economic growth experienced by the nation has been the key to the expansion of employment.
Donations are going
The generous Scandinavian countries, the Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and cooperation from Canada, as well as the Taiwanese, have left Costa Rica with their stories as the leading donors to this Central American nation. The Dutch, the Swedish, and the Germans are soon to leave and take with them the accounts for the so-called “non-reimbursable financial cooperation”; donations, in short. Non-reimbursable cooperation for Costa Rica decreased by 17.65 percent since 1990; meanwhile, the world rate was 5.33 percent, according to the Ministry of Planning. Analysts explain that this nation is a victim of her own success, as compared to neighboring countries, and that donors see it as a “graduate” in development, in spite of its underdeveloped features.
Best destination
The United States tourist sector chose Costa Rica as the number one tourist destination in Latin America in 2007. Magazine Travel Weekly delivered the award to Minister of Tourism Carlos Benavides at the International Tourism Fair, held in Spain. It is the third year that Costa Rica receives the honor, after it had done so in 2004 and 2006. The choice was made by 180,000 readers linked to the industry and belonging to organizations such as travel agencies, hotels, tour operators, etc.
Tourism campaign
The Costa Rican Board of Tourism (ICT in Spanish) will launch an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign, in fears of the impact on tourism of recession in the United States. Costa Rican Minister of Tourism Carlos Benavides said that $14 million will be allocated to that end. This amount is double the overall budget for the year 2007. The aim in the United States is to promote Costa Rica as an exotic destination, one that is closer to the U.S. and not expensive, in comparison to Thailand and other Asian countries. Visitors from the U.S. represented 54 percent of the overall 1.9 million tourists who came to Costa Rica last year.
Illegal fishing
A tuna boat of Panamanian registry was caught while illegally fishing in the protected waters off Cocos Island National Park, in the Pacific Ocean. The crew was forced to release 12 tons of live fish it already had aboard, according to Ministry of the Environment and Coast Guard officials who partook in the operation. The Proteus, a boat belonging to the non-profit environmentalist Marviva Foundation, escorted the Tiuna and her 25-men crew to Puntarenas, where the crew will face indictment and the boat will be kept until a fine estimated at $5 million is paid.
Turtle protection
The Ombudsman’s Office is currently keeping an eye on the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, on the Costa Rican Pacific, intent on enforcing to their outmost the rules that protect the parrot turtle, which spawns at that site. This is so after complaints of egg exploitation have not been successful in attaining indictments as a result of poor handling of the evidence.
Engineering firm
U.S. firm Emerson Process Systems & Solutions is to open in Costa Rica its first center of engineering and design in Latin America. In order to do so, it is hiring 20 engineers and is planning to add another 180 along the next five years. High added value investments, such as Emerson’s, are the ones Costa Rica is focusing on now, according to Government sources.
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
The Fuerza Pública starts at 8 p.m. tonight to seal bars and other places where alcohol is sold. This is the annual effort to prevent alcohol sales on Holy Thursday and Good Friday of Semana Santa.
The police agency is fielding 2,508 officers to work with officials in the country’s 81 municipalities. Anyone who breaks the seals on doors or places where alcohol is stored can face a three-month to two-year jail term.
The Fuerza Pública said the law will be enforced vigorously.
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Paragon Application Systems, the leading global provider of electronic payment (ePayment) simulation, configuration and testing software, today announced the licensing of its FASTest and ATMulator software to Banco de Costa Rica (BCR).
BCR is using FASTest and ATMulator to improve QA and to reduce the time to market for new ATM features and marketing campaigns.
As the first bank in Costa Rica to install an ATM and issue a debit card, BCR prides itself on being an innovative bank. In order to quickly bring new ATM offerings to the market, BCR needed software to assist them in developing and testing these features. BCR improved their QA testing efficiency and reduced testing costs by using Paragon’s desktop simulation and testing solutions ATMulator and FASTest.
“With ATMulator and FASTest, we’ve increased testing automation, centralized control of test cases and reduced testing times for the QA department,” says Luis Morales, Project Leader for BCR. “The software is easy to use and allows us to reproduce test cases that are hard to generate in a real ATM, like device faults. FASTest has been especially helpful because it allows us to execute test cases in minutes, rather than days.”
Another factor in BCR’s decision to choose Paragon, was Paragon’s local presence in Central America. “Paragon has quickly addressed any issues that we’ve had,” says Morales. “Our relationship with Paragon is excellent and we look forward to working with them in the future.”
“We are pleased to work with BCR and their talented staff who quickly realized the many benefits of ATMulator and FASTest,” says Jim Perry, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Paragon. “We are confident that with our local presence in the region we are well positioned to meet BCR’s future needs.”
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Unquestionably, 2007 was a year of growth for Costa Rica’s national tourism industry and the beginning of 2008 confirms consistency. January of 2008 marked a good start in tourist air arrivals according to the preliminary data gathered by the Costa Rica Tourist Board (ICT).
Despite economic worries in the main North American markets, the first month of 2008 shows optimism. International tourism arrivals registered at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) and Daniel Oduber Quirós (LIR) have showed a steady growth. According to the ICT, 127,647 international visitors arrived by plane in January of 2008, marking a 13.7 percent over the same month of 2007.
For Costa Rica Tourism Minister, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, these numbers indicate a positive trend for the current high season already taking place, and at the same time committing the government and sector to improve efforts to promote tourism activities.
“These figures are excellent news, a 13 percent increase is way over the annual estimates and we should take advantage of this to work even harder throughout the year, especially now considering the economic situation, particularly in the United States. We are pleased to announce that we have started off the year successfully,” said Benavides.
In the case of the national airport Juan Santamaría, the numbers indicate an estimated increase of 15 percent, representing approximately 121,000 tourists. The Daniel Oduber airport has an expected increase of 7.3 percent, with 23,000 visitors.
Expansion began last year with U.S. and European airline companies including Spirit Airlines, Frontier, Champion Air, Sunwing Airlines, First Choice, Air Caraibes, and Air Comet flying across Costa Rican skies.
Costa Rica closed 2007 with a total of 1.9 million international tourist arrivals, an 11.5 percent increase in comparison to 2006. Revenue generated by international tourists reached a historic high of US$1.9 billion, up US$300 million from last year.
In terms of investment, in 2007 Costa Rica received an estimated US$800 million in tourism investment; excluding investment in real estate development. Hilton, Marriott, Crown and Express are among some of the hotel chains that decided to invest in Costa Rica’s tourism industry.
In 2008, Costa Rica will be the host of the next United Nations’ International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development. In that sense, sustainable tourism will continue being a pivotal goal for 2008. Costa Rica has set a goal to become a zero carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) tourist destination by the year 2021.
Costa Rica, one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity in the world, has been since 1990, one of the first eco tourism destinations where the national heritage and resources have been used in a sustainable and responsible way. The Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST), created by the ICT in 1999, is one of the initiatives to support sustainable development within the tourism industry.
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