Archive for December 17th, 2009
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Exports for Intel Costa Rica recovered from the decline they had been experiencing since April 2008 for the second consecutive quarter.
Increased demand for chips and chipsets for computers and cellular phones generated sales of $595 million for the company between July and September of this year, 18% more ($91 million) than for the same period in 2008.
In the three months leading up to that time, the multinational based in Heredia also improved its exports.
From April to June, sales surged by 8% ($32 million) in relation to the same quarter last year, reaching revenues of $ 449 million.
Karla White, manager of Intel’s Corporate Relations in Costa Rica, said that markets where Intel sells, Asia, America and Europe, have recovered faster than expected from the financial crisis and this has benefited the company.
White conceded that the multinational’s increase in exports is also due, to a lesser extent, to the transfer of part of the production that the company had been doing in three plants that it closed in Asia earlier this year.
The manager added that the rise in sales in the second and third quarters have helped the company to predict a positive close for this last quarter.
Intel will finish 2009 with exports of $1.9 billion, up 3% over 2008 ($1.85 billion).
However, White would not venture to affirm that the world financial crisis has been overcome in its totality.
“We have no magic ball. We are looking at the market with optimism and we have positive outlook for 2010, but we are not making projections yet,” she said.
The lowest point in the transnational’s sales occurred between November 2008 and January 2009. During those months, exports fell $262 million (44%) compared to $594 million during same period in 2008.
Intel’s business placements represent 20% of total Costa Rican exports. The improvement since the second quarter has caused sales of the country’s sales to decrease at a slower rate since then.
White pointed out that investment and production technology has been vital to lifting the company’s sales. “People want a performance increase. There is a very positive performance by mobile products (laptops and cell phones) where the Atom processor has played an important role,” White added.
These devices operate with chips and chip-sets that Intel is making here. The chips and microprocessors are the brains of electronic devices, while the chipsets are equivalent to a computer’s nervous system and they are responsible for controlling the flow of within.
The manager said that new server technology also increased sales the above-mentioned equipment from Costa Rica.
“With these servers, companies that have or provide services to other data center (data storage centers) achieve greater efficiency and, therefore, they upgrade equipment,” she said.
Servers are Intel’s main product manufactured in Costa Rica, and they enable companies to store and distribute vital information on their computer network.
Intel may not be sure about the world economic crisis, but news is good so far. If sales and exports continue to increase, it will also help Costa Rica overcome the world financial crisis.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Although the president of the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Central Bank, Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez, assures that this year has been a difficult year for the Costa Rican economy, he feels that the country has handled the crisis a lot better than most had thought.
Gutiérrez said that the economy should see a growth of 2.5% in 2010, following a drop of 1.5% this year due to the economic crisis.
The Central Bank president added that he expects inflation in 2010 4.7%, a goal that can be achieved thanks to reduced expectations and pressures on spending.
However, Gutiérrez cautioned that there are several factors that will affect those predictions: the cost of oil, flows of short-term capital and a further deterioration in the fiscal deficit.
Overall the Central Bank president was positive and optimistic.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
It’s Christmas and along with the tamales, the parades and festivals and presents from Santa, the tradition of children burned by the mishandling of fireworks continues.
The Hospital Nacional de Niños (Children’s hospital) reports the second case this month of a child severely burned by the misuse of fireworks.
It is a tradition to set out fireworks for Christmas and New Years, as is the tradition of selling illegal and poor quality fireworks and for parents to allow their children to play with them.
The ministerio de Salud recommends the proper handling of fireworks and calls on parents to keep an eye on their children.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
It’s no secret that North Americans are the dominating foreigners that live in Costa Rica. And because of that, Costa Rica also would like to increase Canadian tourism. It is estimated that some 100,000 Canadians come to Costa Rica each year and about 10,000 Canadians live there, compared to 10 times that amount of Americans.
And because of the Canadians tourism and expats, both governments want to increase revenue from it. However, there is this, Do this for me first and, I will think about doing this for you second, mentality will probably stone wall any reasonable agreement between the two countries if they don’t wake up to reason.
Last week, Michaëlle Jean, the Canadian governor general, met with President Óscar Arias Sánchez to help develop a better relationship. However, Jean is only a representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada, at most, a ceremonial post, but does have a tad of influence. How much? Humm … interesting question.
There are a lot of major hurdles to accomplish a better relationship, we will write about three that we consider have to be overcome if either government wants to develop a better relationship and make some more bucks while doing it.
* One – U.S.-Central American free trade treaty is more liberal than the one negotiated earlier by Canada that went into force in November 2002. U.S. firms have become involved in the lucrative insurance and telecommunications markets under terms of the Central American treaty where Canadians firms have not. Canada wants more Free Trade.
* Two – Costa Rica would like Canada to issue visas from their embassy to Costa Ricans instead of shipping these documents to Guatemala, which has been the normal process for years. Obviously, for a Costa Rican to wait for an out-of-country visa more time, and Costa Ricans are feeling the same BS as they have been with trying to get a visa at San Jose Embassy.
* Three – Arrogances between the two has to be shelved. For example, Aries sorta demanded he would like to see double and triple the Canadian airline flights to San Jose. And Canadian governor general, said. [investing] in Costa Rica, was a “daring experiments,” and a “gamble” that “consists of betting on peace in a highly militarized region (meaning Central American in general) and inextricably linking this path towards peace to democratization and environmental protection.”
My thoughts on hearing Aris, Give Canada the same Free Trade as you have done with the US.
My thoughts on hearing Jean, Gee doesn’t she realize that Costa Rica has been the most peaceful counting in all of Central and South America, and because of this, that is why they have no military. And issue the damn visas!
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