Happy Holidays to all our friends
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Archive for December 24th, 2009
Bridge To Unite Nicaragua and Costa Rica
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Nicaraguan authorities said on Tuesday that the government of Japan has donated us$15 million dollars for the design of the bridge to be constructed over the Río San Juan that borders with Costa Rica.
The bridge will span 260 meters (853 feet) and will be constructed in the Municipio de San Carlos in the southern portion of Nicaragua and Las Tabillas on the north shore of Costa Rica.
Construction is expected to begin by late 2010.
Costa Rican authorities confirmed that a commission made up of ministers and vice-ministers has been analyzing such a possibility, with the objective of facilitating the movement of goods across the river.
The river had been the center of dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, when Nicaraguan officials refused Costa Rican police to patrol the river, a right granted by a century old agreement. Costa Rica lodged a complaint with the International Court at the Hauge which voted in Costa Rica’s favour ending a battle over the San Juan that had lasted almost a decade.
Costa Rican exports down 11 percent from 2008
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Keeping pace with the downward economic trend for the year, the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) announced that Costa Rican exports fell 11 percent in comparison to the first 11 months of the year in 2008.
According to PROCOMER, exports have generated $7.98 billion in sales this year, which is $998 million less than the January-November the timeframe in 2008.
Though the 11 percent decline in export sales was disheartening, the market began to show small signs of recovery as exports in November were 2.8 percent greater than in November 2008. Last year, Costa Rican export revenues topped $9.5 billion, the highest amount generated by exports in the country’s history.
“These results regarding national exports are evidence that the demand of local goods and services has improved during the second half of the year in the principal export markets,” said Emmanuel Hess, the general manager of PROCOMER.
According to PROCOMER, the industrial sector accounts for 76 percent of export revenue, followed by the agriculture sector (21 percent) and livestock and fish sector (2 percent).
Some of the significant increases in export demand have been seen in medicines (7.2 percent), milk (20 percent), pork (82 percent) and pineapple (1.2 percent). Costa Rica is the world’s leader in pineapple exports.
The exports that have experienced the most significant drops in demand were seen in the manufacturing industry (15 percent), fish (3.8 percent) and coffee and bananas. No exact figures are yet available for the percentage decreases in coffee and bananas.
The biggest demand for Costa Rican goods and services remains in the U.S., which accounts for 38.6 percent of all local exports. Asia and the European Union each receive over 17 percent of the total Costa Rican export market.
Spanish, Mexican, Costa Rican Companies Win Panama Canal Contract
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
A consortium made up of Spanish construction firm FCC, Mexico’s ICA and Costa Rica’s Meco has won a Panama Canal dry-excavation contract with a $267.8 million bid.
The consortium beat out Belgium’s Jan de Nul, Brazil’s Oderbrecht and the ISC Panama consortium to win the contract, the second most lucrative of the $5.25 billion canal expansion plan.
According to the specifications laid out by the Panama Canal Authority at the start of the bidding process, the project involves excavating a new channel that will link a new set of locks – yet to be constructed – with the Gaillard Cut, the canal’s narrowest stretch.
The winning consortium offered to carry out the dry-excavation work for a total cost of $267,798,795, well below the $294,913,000 offered by ISC Panama, which finished runner-up.
This was the last bidding process of the canal-expansion plan and will involve the excavation and removal of some 27 million cubic meters (951.6 million cubic feet) of material.
The work will involve opening a 6.1-kilometer (3.8-mile) access channel as well as the construction of a large earth and rock dam with a watertight clay core.
PCA administrator Alberto Aleman Zubieta told Efe Tuesday that the idea is for this latest dry-excavation project to be completed by 2013. The entire canal expansion is due to be finished in 2014.
In July, a consortium led by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso construction company won a $3 billion contract for the third set of locks for the Panama Canal.
The canal, designed in 1904 for ships with a 267-meter (875-foot) length and 28-meter (92-foot) beam, is too small to handle the “post-Panamax” ships that are three times as big, making it necessary for some time to expand by building the new set of locks.
The Panama Canal Authority, a government agency that manages the waterway, wants to double transit capacity.
The 80-kilometer (49-mile) canal, which currently handles about 5 percent of world trade, has been under Panamanian management since Dec. 31, 1999, when the United States surrendered it in keeping with the 1977 Torrijos-Carter treaties.
Banks Closed On December 25 and January 1
Thursday, December 24th, 2009The holiday season is quickly approaching and with it a number of closures of businesses and government offices, agencies and institutions.
During the coming days we will be publishing a list, as completely as possible, of all the closures.
The most important of all closures is that of the banks, which will be closed on Friday, December 25 and Friday, January 1, both legal holidays in Costa Rica.
Some banks may close early on December 24 and 31, but will all be open come the Monday after the holiday. Some banks will be closed December 26 and January 2, if the bank is normally closed on Saturdays.
