Costa Rica information, activities and news
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The Banco Nacional (BN), in an effort to reduce late payments, is offering a reward to ten customers who promptly pay their loans with the offer of paying down their debt up to ¢3 million colones, which in some cases could be paying off the debt.
The bank has the second highest delinquency rate, 3.4% of its loan portfolio. The Banco Cathay has the highest delinquency rate at 3.7%.
The Director de Relaciones Corporativas of the Banco Naciona, Danny González, says the promotion is part of the bank’s aggressive attack on fighting delinquency and to encourage customers to repay their loans on time.
Details of the promotion can be found at www.bncr.fi.cr.
So far the other banks, both state and private, have not announced any such promotions, but are surely to follow the Banco Nacional lead in reducing their default rate.
Honduras is one of the most economically unequal societies in the world. Earlier this year, the president, “Mel” Zelaya, proposed a non-binding opinion poll to determine whether Honduran voters wanted to hold a constituent assembly to write a new, more democratic constitution that would enable a better balance of the nation’s resources.
The country’s wealthy rulers were outraged. The night of June 28, the army dragged President Zelaya out of bed and put him on a plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas. The head of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, was installed as president.
The Organization of American States unanimously denounced this action and refused to recognize Micheletti’s government. Justification of the coup — that Zelaya planned to use the referendum to have himself re-elected for an unconstitutional second term — was dismissed as an obviously bogus pretext.
Big non-violent protests demanded restoration of Zelaya and a constitutional convention. Micheletti responded with media censorship and murder, prison, torture, and rape for demonstrators. A growing non-violent resistance movement is calling for a boycott of the Nov. 29 elections.
Independent polling indicates that the Honduran people overwhelmingly reject the legitimacy of Michelleti’s government. OAS Secretary General Insulza refuses to send election monitors, since that would legitimize an election marred by censorship and repression.
Nevertheless, based on remarks by U.S. State Department officials, many observers fear that the Obama administration will ultimately accept the election results, thus implicitly supporting the repressive rule of the oligarchs and their generals. This would be a betrayal of democracy.
Costa Rica announced an investment of 18 million U.S. dollars on Thursday in an effort to fight the second wave of A/H1N1 flu expected to hit the nation in January 2010.
To combat the flu, the country’s social security system (CCSS) would purchase 30 X-ray machines, 97 fans, and 18,000 Tamiflu (oseltamivir) treatment dosages for patients who need it.
It would also buy 70 refrigerators to store 300,000 vaccines expected to arrive in the country in the next few days.
CCSS President Eduardo Doryan also said that some 227 new jobs would be created as the country was to strengthen patient supervision and improve patient care for the flu pandemic.
So far this year, Costa Rica has reported 40 deaths due to the A/H1N1 influenza.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias on Thursday signed a bilateral cooperation agreement to boost ties. The two leaders pledged to deepen and expand political and social dialogue on bilateral and international issues of mutual interest, the commercial ties, and cultural exchanges to achieve integration between the two countries. Martinelli said the partnership will bring great benefits to both countries and their peoples. Arias said Costa Rica and Panama are united with this agreement because they share the values of democracy, freedom and political pluralism. “This agreement will expand our cooperation from economy to other areas where there are long ways to go and we are going to do it,” Arias said after signing the document. According to Arias, the ties between the two countries have been transparent and fraternal, because they are based on mutual trust and the pursuit of common welfare for both countries.
Costa Rica’s Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes – public works and transport ministry (MOPT) – says it needs to invest us$200 million over the next three years to improve bridge infrastructure, local paper La Nación reported.
These resources would be sufficient to carry out maintenance on the country’s bridges which have been neglected for several decades.
However, MOPT does not have enough budget to complete the works, as the amount represents 82% of road council Conavi’s 2010 budget, which is approximately us$245 million, the report said.
In its 2010 annual budget, Conavi designated us$15 million for bridge repairs which is only enough to repair 10 of the total 1,300 bridges in the national road network.
The structures considered to be a priority by Conavi are those which are vital for tourism, and national and international trade.
The newly appointed MOPT minister Marco Vargas confirmed that bridge repair and construction will be a government priority until May 8 of next year, when President Óscar Arias’ administration comes to an end.
To finance some of the other works, the ministry aims to use a us$17 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei).
Vargas has said he wants to use part of a us$850 million IDB transport and infrastructure loan. However, the disbursal of this loan has been delayed because congress has still not approved the funding.
The mandatory vehicular inspection could cost double next year if the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) approves a request by the Revisión Técnica Vehicular (RITEVE).
The RITEVE proposal asks the government regulator to increase the current fee of ¢9.930 colones for passenger vehicles to ¢19.870, taxis fees from the current ¢10.714 to ¢21.445, motos from ¢6.541 to ¢13.090 and heavy vehicles – trucks and buses – from ¢13.076 to ¢26.180.
The ARESEP confirmed that it received the fee hike request on November 13 and is still in the process of admission. Not all changes submitted to the ARESEP are automatically accepted and sent to a study and public hearing.
RITEVE says it needs the increase to continue to operate and that since beginning operations it has upped its fees only one time, in 2005.
All vehicles must be submitted for inspection on annual basis (taxis and buses twice yearly) under a mandatory inspection program under the guidelines of the ministerio de Obras Públicas y Tránsportes (MOPT).
RITEVE operates a series of inspection stations across the country.
