Top 10 Costa Rica

Chinese President Hu Jintao finished the last leg of his five-nation trip here on Wednesday and embarked on his way home.

The trip, which began on Nov. 14, took him to a financial summit in Washington and the Economic Leaders’ Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima.

He also paid state visits to Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru and Greece.

At the Washington summit, the Chinese leader outlined China’s propositions on responding to the international financial crisis, explained major measures adopted by the Chinese government to ensure financial stability and economic development, and made proposals on reforming the international financial system.

At the APEC meeting, President Hu made proposals on furthering Asia-Pacific regional cooperation in dealing with the world financial crisis, the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, food and energy security, and other pressing issues facing the world and the region.

During his state visits to Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru and Greece, the Chinese president and leaders of the four nations exchanged views on the further development of bilateral relations and reached broad consensus on expanding friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

In Lima, Hu and his Peruvian counterpart Alan Garcia announced the conclusion of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) and the upgrading of bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.

Lawmakers yesterday approved President Oscar Arias administration’s $7.45 billion budget for 2009, an estimated 3.7 percent increase in real spending over this year.

The big winners are education, health and culture. Real spending will increase by 23.4 percent for the Health Ministry and 37.5 percent for the Culture Ministry. The Education Ministry will receive about $2 million, an increase of 24.3 percent over this year and more than one quarter of the total budget.

Still, lawmakers from the opposition Citizen Action Party (PAC) criticized the Arias administration for failing to fulfill the president’s campaign process to invest 8 percent of GDP in education.

Although Arias calls security a priority, the Security Ministry’s budget will increase by a smaller margin than health or education. Some $192 million will go to fight crime, a 14.9 percent increase over this year in real terms.

About 72 percent of the budget will be financed by state income, while 28 percent will come from the sale of state bonds.

Some 23 of the 39 lawmakers who attended session yesterday afternoon gave the budget a thumbs-up.

Beginning next week, the Executive Branch will be able to decide the legislative agenda. The administration is prioritizing bills that would overhaul the immigration system, transfer cash to state banks, crack down on traffic law violations and beef up security.

Costa Rica recently signed up for Shanghai World Expo 2010. Up until now, there are 164 countries and international organizations that have signed a participation contract.

Costa Rica confirmed its participation in October 2006 and will display, with the theme “Peaceful Co-existence with Nature” in the Central and South America Union Hall. The Central and South America Union Hall is planned to be located in Zone C of the World Expo’s Pudong Park area. Currently, there are already nine Central and South American countries that have confirmed their participation in this Expo.

A group of 16 Costa Rican tourists were rescued Thursday from the disaster area in the Panamanian province of Bocas del Toro, which has been isolated by flood.

Costa Rican Consul in David City Victor Carvajal said the tourists were brought to safety by a plane of the Colombian Air Force performing humanitarian aid mission.

Carvajal also thanked the aid and rescue groups.

Authorities of the Panamanian National System of Civil Protection (Sinaproc) said the Costa Ricans were the last group of100 foreign tourists trapped in that zone.

Sinaproc said the number of victims has risen to 21,427.

On Thursday, the Panamanian authorities set up maritime and aerial links to the disaster zone to deliver humanitarian aid, including water, food, medicine, clothes and machines to rebuild the roads.

Thieves are getting more ingenuous every day and where less expected, criminals hands are at work. This time a gang made up of 9 individuals were the focus of attention of investigators after receiving a number of complaints of fraud.

It appears that the gang broke into the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) telephone boxes located on public streets, tapping into conversations of their selected victims to obtain detailed financial information.

Using information obtained by Datum and other information services that provide names, telephone numbers, property ownership and other financial information, the gang chose their victims.

ICE spokesperson Elberth Durán explained that the institution is making a full check of all theri telephone boxes, some which have been found to have been tampered with. Durán emphasized that the tampering are isolated incidents, however, there will be a full internal investigation and is asking residents to report to authorities any suspicious behaviour around the telephone boxes.

Good news for the tens of thousands who have been waiting patiently for a cellular telephone line, 50.000 GSM lines will be available on December 15, said Orlando Cascante, director de Servicios Móviles del ICE.

Cascante was quick to point out that the lines are not new, but rather, lines from users who did not pay their bills on time or decided to cancel the service.

ICE has a policy of “liquidacion” after two consecutive bills are unpaid. In such a case customers lose their lines, however, can in many cases get back the same number if the non payment has not continued for more than 3 months, or will be assigned a new number.

ICE’s plan to is make available between 2.000 and 2.500 lines a day based on reservation.

According to ICE, there are some 150.000 people waiting to get cellular service.

ICE is working on expanding the Ericsson network by 300.000 additional lines, which should have been available the first week of December and reviewing the bids for the 950.000 3G lines which the institution says will be available sometime by the end of 2009.

A lingering storm on the Caribbean side of the country has indirectly claimed its first victim, a man in the town of Siquirres.

Red Cross spokeswoman Fiorella Vilca said the man was electrocuted, apparently while working in wet clothes on an electrical cord in his home.

Vilca said the Red Cross could not yet confirm the victim’s name or age.

Some 4,000 people have been forced into shelters and 35 roads sustained damage, mostly in Siquirres and the Caribbean province of Limón, which have been put on maximum alert for flooding and landslides, the National Emergency Commission reported.

The commission initially reported yesterday morning that the low pressure system showed signs of becoming a cyclone, but the storm later subsided slightly and the chance of it becoming a cyclone was reduced to 20 percent, said Evelyn Quirós, of the National Meteorological Institute.

The Caribbean region today is likely to see a gradual lightening up of rain, she said, but the cool temperatures felt in many parts of the country should be similar to yesterday.

Heavy rains also caused the deaths of four people in nearby Panama, according to the news agency EFE.

Costa Rica is considering levying a $15 tax on international passengers arriving in the country, causing the airline industry, represented by IATA, to cry foul.

The law currently being debated would tax arriving passengers but would not apply to Costa Ricans. IATA, in a letter to the minister of tourism, says the proposed tax could be perceived as discriminatory.

Furthermore, IATA argues that the tax could be a disincentive for travelers to visit Costa Rica. But this tax could unravel years of work by turning visitors away and sending the wrong signals, IATA says.

Tourism will account for 13.5% of Costa Rica’s GDP this year, which suggests how important the sector is to the country’s economy, IATA says.

The proposed tax could siphon off passengers to other countries in the region. It also runs contrary to Costa Rica’s agenda to increase tourism to the country. Much like a tax on tobacco, the proposed tax will penalize tourism, and the government will see the collection of the tax decrease as tourism diminishes.

Argentina last month began levying a reciprocal tax on citizens of countries that require visas of Argentine nationals. IATA objected to that tax for much the same reason it objects to Costa Rica’s planned tax.

Costa Rica’s manufacturers are asking to be excluded from the free trade treaty the Central American country plans to negotiate with China in a process set to begin in January.

The head of the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica, or CICR, Juan Maria Gonzalez, told a press conference that there are very few sectors that can provide a profit for Costa Rican industry within the trade accord with China.

Gonzalez said that Costa Rica has much to lose by agreeing to a treaty of this kind with the giant Asian nation and should push for a partial accord in which the market is opened up only to certain sectors and products.

“An FTA (free trade agreement) puts all sectors on the negotiating table. A treaty of this kind with a manufacturing country like China limits the decisions on the future of local industry, and therefore we ask for the sector to be excluded” from it, he said.

The CICR says that a treaty with China “is not appropriate” because that country still has some of the bad habits of a centralized economy, including little experience with the regulations of the World Trade Organization and, above all, it has not been able to establish effective health and safety controls for its exports.

In addition, the “artificially low” prices of Chinese products would represent unfair competition for Costa Rica’s domestic producers, the CICR says. EFE

The first week in December is when tourist number 2.000.000 will arrive, marking an historic moment for the country. To mark the event, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) is preparing a reception party worthy of a hero.

The announcement was made by Allan Flores, manager of the ICT, during the inauguration of a new Sansa service in Liberia.

“We are preparing an enormous reception, one filled with many surprises”, said Flores.

Tourist 2 million will have, among other goodies, free hotel accommodations, free tours of the country and will always be welcome to Costa Rica, explained Flores.

The ICT official explained that, according to their calculations, the first week in December is when tourist 2.000.000 is expected to cross the immigration lines at the Juan Santamaría airport.

In 1999, Costa Rica broke the one million tourist barrier.

Flores added that the projection for increase visitors this season over last has been reduced to between 6% and 9% when only a couple of months ago the projection was 15%.

The financial crisis around the world is being blamed for the drop. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has also revised its projections from 6% to 2%.

Flores said that Costa Rica will see, at minimum, three times more tourists than the rest of the world based on the WTO projections.

In 2007, Costa Rica received 1.9 million tourists, a growth of 11.7% over 2006.

Tourism in Costa Rica depends generally on the economic well being of the United States. In 2007, figures show that 40% of all tourists came from the U.S.

The Sala IV constitutional court has ruled that a foreigner does not have to be legally married to a Costa Rican to avoid deportation. Simply living together will do the trick.

The court threw out a section of immigration law that said a union in fact has no legal effect and cannot be used to evade deportation or to seek permanent residency. The law was challenged by the Fundación Centro de Derechos Sociales del Inmigrante.

The ruling is retroactive.

The Costa Rican Constitution says that the family is to be protected, and the Sala IV said that the word family must be interpreted broadly, not just as a product of matrimony.

The court also said that the immigration law discriminated against foreigners because a union in fact is recognized in many ways in Costa Rican law

Continued rain and rising waters have caused more bridges to become unpassable and landslides to close roads on the Caribbean Coast.

Closure of the Braulio Carrillo highway between San Jose and Limon due to 3 landslides on the route. As well the alternate route through Turrialba is also blocked due to landslides between Turrialba and Siquirres.  There is also a road closure between Siquirres and Limon due to rising waters of the Chirripó River.

Unconfirmed reports also says that the highway between Cahuita and Limon is also blocked due to rising waters of the Rio Estrella. Apparently the bridge linking BriBri and Sixaola to Hone Creek and on the rest of the country is also not passable.

MEPE´s San Jose office advised that there will be no more buses today but tomorrow they advise simply ”vamos a ver” (let´s wait and see).

Besides the road closures, more than 4,000 people have been left temporarily homeless by the rain. The Cruz Roja has more than 50 staff working in the area and is mobilizing auxiliary forces to try and rescue people stranded by the storm.

The United States will begin the final round of World Cup qualifying in the Concacaf region by hosting Mexico on Feb. 11. The draw was held Saturday morning in Johannesburg in conjunction with the draw for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, which will be played in South Africa a year before it hosts the 2010 World Cup. The other teams in the group are Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The top three finishers will go to South Africa, and a fourth team will enter a playoff against the fifth-place finisher in South America for another berth.

Tourists flying into Costa Rica will soon have to pay a new $15 tax.

The new tax on plane tickets replaces a 3 percent tax on hotel rooms that generated just $10 million a year and was hard to enforce.

The new tax should generate $25 million a year to help the Costa Rica Tourism Institute attract more visitors.

Tourism is a $2 billion a year industry in Costa Rica. Each year, nearly 2 million people visit the country known for its eco-tourism. The new tax was approved late Thursday by Congress and should take effect later this year.

Costa Rica’s fresh produce industry leaders applauded the country’s long anticipated entry into the Central American Free Trade Agreement in mid-November and said the pact will benefit both Costa Rica and the U.S.

While Costa Rica’s fresh produce exports to the U.S. already receive duty-free access because of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, Costa Rica sources say the free trade deal will allow growers and packers to purchase U.S. machinery and other inputs at zero tariff levels.

Costa Rica’s long-awaited entrance into the CAFTA agreement will also be good for U.S. exporters of apples, grapes and other items. For example, Costa Rica’s applied tariff on apples is 16% and that will drop to zero after Jan. 1. Read the rest of this entry »