Author Archives: Nick Halverson

Costa Rica Consumer Prices Dip

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Category : Costa Rica Business Costa Rica economy

Source: www.TicoTimes.net

Costa Rica’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports that prices fell an average of 0.08 percent during the month of September, the first month this year that consumer prices have decreased. Despite the slight deflation, through the first nine months of the year, average consumer prices have risen 3.87 percent, about a full percentage point higher than during the same period of 2009, when inflation was 2.92 percent.

The CPI, which is calculated by the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC), measures the monthly price variation of 292 national goods and services in 12 categories. In September, average consumer prices fell for food and non-alcoholic drinks, alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, transportation, communication, and entertainment and culture. Prices experienced their largest increases in the areas of rent and living expenses, health, and diverse goods and services.

The largest percentage price decreases were seen in the cost of onions, tomatoes, eggs, gasoline, and automobiles. The largest percentage price increases were seen in the cost of cilantro, potatoes, bread, and domestic help.

From 2000-2008, Costa Rica’s inflation rate hovered around the 10 percent mark, reaching a high of 13.9 percent in 2008. After closing 2009 with a 4.05 percent inflation rate, the lowest recorded figure since 1971, Central Bank President Rodrigo Bolaños has stated on several occasions that the bank aims to keep the increase in consumer prices between 4 to 6 percent in 2010.

“The principal goal (of the Central Bank) is to keep inflation at a low level,” Bolaños told The Tico Times in August. “We have the inflation rate down to around where we’d like it to be, but it hasn’t been at that level for very long. The challenge of the Central Bank will be to maintain it. As the inflation rate stays low, the economy reacts with higher demand.”

From October 2009 through September 2010, consumer prices have risen 5 percent.

350,000 Costa Ricans Employed in Export Industries

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Category : Costa Rica Business

Source: www.ticotimes.net

According to a study conducted by the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (Procomer), approximately 355,000 people are employed in Costa Rica’s export sector. The study found that those involved in producing products for export hold 76 percent of jobs in the nation’s agricultural and industrial sectors.

The study, which tabulated the results of questionnaires distributed to companies in the export sector, including coffee, sugar and banana companies, revealed that 200,000 workers are employed in the industrial sector, 150,000 employees work in agricultural exports, and over 5,000 people are employed in the export of fish and beef products. The study found that 35 percent of these employees are women, and that the number of women working in the export sector has increased 4 percent since 2009.

“These results are a clear indication of the social benefit and job opportunities made available by the export of Costa Rican products around the world,” said Jorge Sequiera, general manager of Procomer. “This study highlights the benefits of maintaining stable exports of industrial and agricultural products, and the increased employment generated by increased productivity.”

The study also revealed that 81 percent of all exporting companies are considered small to medium-sized businesses. In 2009, Costa Rica earned $8.7 billion through exports.

Sterigenics to Build Plant in Costa Rica

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Category : Costa Rica Business Laura Chinchilla

Source: www.ticotimes.net

By Adam Williams

Sterigenics International, a U.S.-based medical devices manufacturing company, announced Friday that it will construct a plant in Costa Rica. The plant, which will be built in a yet-to-be-determined free-trade zone, is expected to be completed by the end of 2011 and to begin operations in January 2012.

The company, headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, is the third U.S. medical supplies company in the last month to announce that they will expand or begin operations in Costa Rica.

“Costa Rica is an attractive center for the manufacturing and distribution of medical devices,” said David E. Meyer, the President and CEO of Sterigenics. “This project is an excellent opportunity for us to implement our global expansion strategy.”

According to the Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE), the plant will bring an estimated investment of $7 million during the first stage of the project. Attracting foreign direct investment is an often-voiced goal of the administration of President Laura Chinchilla. In late September, Chinchilla rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange and told the crowd of stockbrokers that her administration “is working very hard to continue to continue inviting U.S. companies to invest in our country.”

Chinchilla has stated that she hopes to bring in $9 billion in foreign direct investment during her presidential term. In 2009, the export of medical products generated more than $1.34 billion for the economy and accounted for 15.5 percent of the nation’s total exports.

Sterigenics International produces sterilization and ionization products for the medical services, pharmaceutical and food safety industries. The company has over 1,300 employees in 38 international service centers. The Costa Rican location will be the first in Central or South America.

Recycling Expo in Costa Rica / Daily News / News / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times

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Category : Costa Rica education Environment

Recycling Expo in Costa Rica / Daily News / News / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times.

Free Trade Zone in Caribbean to Break Ground

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Category : Costa Rica Business Government Laura Chinchilla

Source: www.Ticotimes.net

Promoters of the first free-trade zone in the Caribbean province of Limón will break ground this month. The free-trade zone, to be located in the community of Búfalo, will be large enough to host the manufacturing operations of 12 companies.

The free-trade zone will be administered by Guanazul JRV S.A.

The new zone comes after a December 2009 reform of the law governing areas that provide incentives such as tax breaks to attract companies to set up operations in less developed and less populated areas of the country. Most of the 247 companies operating in free-trade zones are based in the Central Valley.

Free-trade zones offer companies the opportunity to import and export goods without barriers such as quotas or tariffs. Countries use them to attract foreign investment, critical for developing countries like Costa Rica. In 2008, companies operating in free-trade zones in Costa Rica accounted for $4.98 billion in exports, more than 54 percent of the country’s total.

To start operations in the new Limón free-trade zone, a minimum investment of $100,000 is required.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla recently said she aims to bring in $9 billion in foreign direct investment during her presidential term.

The nearest free trade zone for residents of The Village of San Buenas real estate development is located in Golfito. Golfito is an easy 1.5 hour drive from San Buenaventura.

Costa Rica Internet Usage Facts and Figures

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Category : Uncategorized

Source: Tico Times

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net
A recent study conducted by Internet provider Radiográfica Costarricense S.A. (RACSA) and market research firm CID Gallup revealed that 53 percent of Costa Ricans (2.4 million people) actively use the Internet. This percentage has increased each year since 2004, when an estimated 20 percent of Ticos used the Internet. In 2009, RACSA and CID Gallup found that 45 percent of Costa Ricans had online access.

The study also discovered that 52 percent of Costa Rican homes have a computer, up from 46 percent in 2009. Of the estimated 648,000 computerized homes, 367,000 had Internet access. The study also found that Ticos’ average Internet visit is three hours, and the average user age 29 years.

The most common uses for the Internet were e-mail, online searches, research, chatting and social networking, while use of the Internet by Costa Ricans for work, music, videos, bank transactions and online purchases grew considerably in the past year.

According to a study by the Education Ministry, of Costa Rica’s 9,246 educational institutions, 2,369 (25.6 percent) had Internet access as of Jan. 1, 2010. The ministry also reported that 133 schools were in the process of having an Internet connection installed, and that a feasibility study for potential Internet installation was being conducted for 2,077 other schools.

According to the 2009-2010 World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report, Costa Rica is ranked 49th among the world’s nations in terms of the percentage of its citizens who use the Internet, up seven spots from the previous year. Costa Rica also exports the ninth largest amount of high-technology products. Most of these exports are Intel Pentium computer processors manufactured here.

Pablo Picasso Artwork on Display in Costa Rica

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Category : Uncategorized

Source: www.TicoTimes.net

Twenty-nine lithographs of works by iconic Spanish artist Pablo Picasso are now on display in a free exhibit at Avenida Escazú shopping mall, west of San José.

Unable to resist the blank surfaces on the sheets of corrugated cardboard piled up in his studio on the French Riviera, Picasso, at age 88, used them as canvases for his “Retratos Imaginarios” (“Imaginary Portraits”), and then personally supervised the process of transforming them into lithographs.

The works display all the whimsical humor and cubist vision of the famed master. The Avenida Escazú exhibit opened Aug. 27 and will be on display through Oct. 25.

Time Magazine Announces Chinchilla as Top 10 Female Leader

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Category : Costa Rica Business Costa Rica history Costa Rica Pictures Laura Chinchilla

Original: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_09/090910.htm#story4

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla was recognized as one of the “Top 10 Female Leaders” by Time magazine on Wednesday. She was ranked No. 10 on the list, which appears on Time’s website, www.time.com.

Here is a link to the article in Time: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2005455_2005458_2005480,00.html

Julia Gillard, the recently elected prime minister of Australia, topped the list, which also included Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and Africa’s first female president. All 10 women on the list are either their nation’s president or prime minister.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla
MAYELA LOPEZ / AFP / GETTY

A brief biography of each of those honored appears on the Time website. Chinchilla’s biography includes that she is the first woman president in the history of Costa Rica, follows Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias in office, took 47 percent of the popular vote in the February election and is a social conservative, and that the focus of her administration is limiting crime and enhancing security. The biography also mentions that Chinchilla opposes gay marriage, abortion and legalization of the morning-after pill.

In a statement released Wednesday night, Chinchilla said, “It is a great honor to be recognized in Time magazine, not only for me personally, but also for our country and its commitment to gender equality. It gives me great satisfaction, but it is also a great acknowledgement for Costa Rica and all of the men and women who have fought to make it possible for Costa Rica to have a woman president.”

Message from Management

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Category : Costa Rica Business Costa Rica development Costa Rica real estate Message from Management Village San Buenas

Recently I spent ten days in Costa Rica working on various projects. It had been six months since I was there last. I thought you would be interested in what I saw.

Southern Costa Rica continues to make favorable changes while retaining its unique

features of beautiful flora and fauna and a friendly relaxed lifestyle. For example, ten years ago there were only muddy agricultural roads in the area. Now there is a beautiful two lane highway with reflectors making driving safe and easy all day and night.

Rather than having virtually no telephone service and no cell phone service (as was the case until December 15, 2009), internet service is becoming commonplace and it is only a short time before the community of San Buenaventura has internet service.

Instead of an outdated medical facility, the Southern zone of Costa Rica now has one of the newest medical facilities in all of Costa Rica. For photos click here.

Cortez Costa Rica
New hospital 5 minutes from The Village of San Buenas

Rather than providing sporadic electrical power, a new hydroelectric power plant is being built.

And finally, although no specifics have been announces, rumors continue to float that a new international airport will be built in the southern zone/Osa Peninsula sometime in the relative near future.

The Village of San Buenas

Our Costa Rica real estate development continues to be more impressive on each visit. Our family has built a home about in the middle of the development. The news are spectacular! We see the ocean and mountains, see parakeets, toucans, scarlet macaws and hear the flowing river running through the project along with  the howler monkeys that live in the nearby natural preserve (located on the project).

Village San Buenas Logo
Affordable Costa Rica Living

We are making excelling progress in getting more infrastructure in place. Specifically, we have constructed a bridge over the river that flows through the property. Within the next twelve months we will have a well drilled that will take care of many of our lot owners when they choose to build their home.

We are working closely with the government agencies to have electricity available to everyone in the near future. We hope to have internet service available to select areas of the project by June 2011. Telephone service is expected to be available to select regions of the project by December 2010.

All these things mean that the infrastructure should be in place in a large portion of the development before any lot owner decides to build a house.

Obviously the depressed world economy has had a negative impact on the value of many peoples’ houses and holdings in the stock market. It is very pleasing to note that no such decline has occurred on the value of our lots. Indeed, virtually everyone who purchased a lot has seen its value increase. As we continue to upgrade the project we plan to increase prices.

I encourage you to visit our website, www.VillageCostaRica.com, then contact me directly with any questions you may have. We would love to visit with you about beautiful Costa Rica and The Village of San Buenas.

As a final note, buy your airpland ticket and go see our project – I invite you to stay at our house to view the project. You will love what you see and hear!

Our beautiful house
Our beautiful house

Duane Halverson
Chairman of the Board

Canada and Costa Rica Start Professional Exchange Program

Tags :

Category : Costa Rica Business Costa Rica education Government

By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
Original: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/083010.htm#story1
Young Ticos will soon have the opportunity to work on Canada’s famous ski slopes, study in the best Canadian universities or travel through the northern nation’s national parks, thanks to an agreement signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers on Friday.The agreement overrides immigration requirements for a one-year period so that Ticos and Canadians between 18 and 35 years of age can participate in an exchange program.

Canada has similar programs with Chile, France, Poland, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom, among other nations.

“This is an opportunity to build people-to-people ties,” said Peter Van Loan, Canada’s minister of international trade, who was in San José for the signing of the agreement. “It allows young people the chance to work, to play, to travel in a foreign country.”

Costa Rican Foreign Minister René Castro praised the program for creating a platform for cultural exchange and said it has the potential to bring Costa Rica closer to its goal of joining the nations of the developed world.

“It’s a pleasure to work to open doors for youth,” he said. “We hope that hundreds – maybe thousands – will benefit from a program that opens borders and opportunities for young people through a cultural exchange and mutual learning.”

The two countries still have to agree on a quota for how many people from each country can take advantage of the opportunity.

According to Castro, both governments are in the process of gauging their citizens’ interest in participating in the program.
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