Archive for February 25th, 2010
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Sykes in Costa Rica will be holding a job fair this Saturday beginning at 8am, offering 250 positions.
The job fair will be a the Sykes offices in Moravia.
Sykes officials say that many of those interviewed will be hired the same day, in some cases there will be an English level requirement and jobs applications will be hired with the option of perfecting their English at the Sykes Academy.
Orlando Uriza, human resources manager at Sykes, said that the new employees will work out of Moravia or Global Park.
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Exports from the Central American nation were up in January, with the agriculture sector showing the most promising signs of growth
Despite a 9 per cent decline in overseas shipments last year, Costa Rica recorded a 22 per cent growth in export value in January as sendings rose to US$727.9m, according to figures released by the country’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office (Procomer).
Several of the country’s export sectors experienced considerable growth in the first month of the year, led by the agriculture industry, which recorded a 28 per cent and 69 per cent increase in pineapple and melon sendings respectively in comparison to January 2009.
Coffee and bananas, Costa Rica’s traditional export items, also showed signs of rebounding from a difficult 2009, when banana exports fell by 15 per cent and coffee by over 31 per cent, with both products enjoying a growth in shipments during January.
“The numbers indicate the possibilities for growth for the banana industry in new markets,” explained Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Costa Rica’s foreign trade minister. “These results allow us to continue with the established projections of the commercial agenda, which we expect to be favorable in the export market as we enter new markets.”
Of the export total, 40 per cent of shipments in January were sent to North America (up 181 per cent on January 2009), 19 per cent to Asia (+76 per cent) and 17 per cent to the European Union (EU). The balance was distributed within Central America and the Caribbean.
Earlier this year, Costa Rica also finalized Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Singapore and China, and this week will enter the seventh round of FTA discussions with the EU.
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Letter to the Editor
Before passing a health bill that could cripple our country with further debt, I think our legislators should look south.
I just visited Costa Rica where they have a social security system, including health care, which is financially supporting itself. The secret – the only people who receive benefits are those who pay into it through their jobs. Even the immigrant workers from Nicaragua who received a minimum wage were required to contribute in order to receive emergency services from a hospital. Our guide was bewildered, as am I, when we discussed the concept that people in our country who do not contribute to a system still receive services. A system based on something for nothing cannot and should not stand.
When are our leaders going to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and diligently search for a system, like Costa Rica’s, that has proved effective and economically sound?
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
A new Costa Rican solar power plan will see the light of day thanks to an approximately $9 million gift from Japan, officials from both countries said this week.
The “Project to Introduce Clean Energy through Solar Electrical Generation,” proposed last year by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), will enable Costa Rica to have its first solar power plant, which officials expect will help steer Costa Rica closer to its goal of carbon neutrality by the year 2021.
The first phase of the plan is called the “Miravalles Solar Project,” which will join ICE geothermal and wind power plant in Miravalles, in the northwest province of Guanacaste. ICE officials said the state-run institute has enough land there to install a micro solar generator capable of cranking out 400 kilowatts, which will help provide electricity for rural communities in the region.
Phase 2 of the plan – the “Solar Sabana Pilot Project” – will be built at the ICE headquarters in the western San José neighborhood of Sabana Norte. Workers will install solar panels on the institute’s high-rise building to “show residents of the greater metropolitan area the possibilities offered by solar energy,” according to a statement from ICE.
The institute has not set a date for these projects to start, as both phases are pending final details of the donation, ICE said.
Costa Rican Foreign Ministry officials expressed gratitude for the donation from the “nation of the rising sun,” Japan.
“This cooperation will allow us to achieve 100 percent use of clean, renewable energy, reducing part of our carbon emissions, with the goal of being the first developing country to become carbon neutral by the year 2021,” Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said at the signing ceremony.
The donation comes through Japan’s Cool Earth Partnership, which is a $10 billion program to “cooperate actively with developing countries’ efforts to reduce emissions, such as efforts to enhance energy efficiency,” according to the program’s Web site.
“I hope through our cooperation that friendly nations such as Costa Rica can have access to technologies developed in Japan to combat climate change and achieve their objectives,” said Japanese Ambassador to Costa Rica Hidekazu Yamaguchi, who signed the agreement Tuesday along with Stagno.
Renewable energy – whether through hydroelectric, geothermal or wind power – makes up 94.6 percent of the total energy generated for Costa Rican consumption, according to Roger Carvajal, director of ICE’s Corporate University Division.
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