Posted by Steve Linder on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
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A Woman President- Today marks a historical moment. Laura Chinchilla was elected president last night by carrying nearly 50% of the vote. Costa Rica has the highest concentration of women in office on the planet, currently at about 40%. The government is suggesting that the number should be 50/50 and are working to do so. Costa Rica also has term limits of 4 years for a President. They can run again but must sit out at least a four year term before being eligible to run again. This was Oscar Arias's second term in office.
Proud to Vote-In Costa Rica, voting is a big deal. Costa Rican's are required to vote, though there is no type of enforcement. In this election, just shy of 70% of all eligible voters turned out to vote. Anyone can form a political party and there were 7 party candidates represented in this years Presidential elections. A candidate must receive at least 40% of the vote to be declared the winner in the Presidential elections or the top two candidates will be in a run off election. Laura swept the elections when we consider that she received just shy of 50% of the vote and that there were 6 other candidates in the race. Costa Ricans are very proud of their parties. As an election approaches you will see various political flags placed on cars throughout the country. During elections, polling stations are set up in places like prisons, elderly housing centers and hospitals to help insure that everyone gets a chance to vote. Many of the political parties also provide rides to the polls as well as incentives like a gas card for a small amount of gas for your car.
About Laura Chinchilla- Laura Chinchilla, 50, is married and has a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Costa Rica, and a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington DC, USA. Laura was the Vice President serving with Oscar Arias until she resigned about 6 months ago to run for the presidency. She is part of the PLN (National Liberation Party) and had the support of Oscar Arias. She is considered to be a social conservative and opposes abortion and gay marriage. She is pro womans rights. She has a teenage son and has lived a modest lifestyle.
Oscar and Laura- accomplished a lot in the past four years. Oscar has spend his last few weeks attending ribbon cutting ceremonies on various projects he saw to completing during his term in office including updates to the Costanera Highway, the completion of the Caldera San Jose toll road, the construction of a new stadium in San Jose, updates and privatization of both international airports in Costa Rica. Oscar and Laura have also done a good job of keeping the Costa Rican economy on track while much of the world was suffering. The push for infrastructure development and the passing of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement have helped Costa Rica weather the storm. Unemployment remains lower in Costa Rica than in much of the world though still higher than normal at about 8%.
Laura Chinchilla is Pro Development - Her number one campaign issue was to be tough on crime. Costa Rica's murder rate just reached 11 per 100,000 inhabitants. 10 per 100,000 is considered good and the rise to 11 has raised concern. Though still far less than it's neighbors (Panama is approaching 30 per 100k, Nicaragua has seen an increase in political violence with the 2007 murder rate per 100,000 of 12.5) There has also been an increase in street crime, robberies and break-ins. A major complain in Costa Rica is a lack of enforcement. Laura has been accused of favoring developers at the expense of conservation but the population within Costa Rica has overwhelmingly supported the trade off. Cosa Rica continues to enjoy the highest standard of living in central America.
Drug Traffic Increase- Costa Rica has always had the lowest incident of drug use in Central America, both cocaine and marijuana. Part of the problem has been that as more countries in Central America and Mexico have tried to tighten the flow the drugs through their countries, some of the drug trafficking cartels have set sights on Costa Rica since the low use of drugs makes it easier to sneak around. There were record numbers of drug seizures recently in the country, with evidence that Columbian drug lords and some Mexican drug cartels were attempting to route drug shipments through Costa Rica. A large shipment of cocaine was recently found in a shipment of frozen fish coming from the port of Limon, on Costa Rica's east coast. Much of the increase in violent crime in Costa Rica has been attributed to the illegal drug trade. Hopefully things won't go the way of Panama; Panama's national statistics for violent crime registered 194 murders and 1,075 gunfire victims during the first semester of 2007 (13% up from the same period of the last year). Laura has pledged to battle the drug cartels and enforce existing laws against criminals. She has pledged to significantly increase the size of the police force in Costa Rica.
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Posted by Steve Linder on Wed, Jan 27, 2010
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Dreams of Highways - What was once a dream in the eyes of the administration of Rodrigo Carazo Odio, President of Costa Rica back in 1979 when the first plans for the Caldera Highway were conceived, is soon to become reality. Over 30 years ago the Caldera Highway project was initially planned. Work did not begin on the project for many more years, grinding to a halt about 10 years ago after it was discovered that the government had not yet expropriated all the land needed to build the road. About three years ago, President Oscar Arias got the project back on track.
Who's the Builder? - Autopistas Del Sol is now responsible for the design, build rehabilitation, maintenance and operation of the new Caldera - San Jose toll Road. Highways of the Sun is a consortium, a subsidiary of concessions Sacyr Vallehermoso, which has a 35% by FCC Construction, with another 35%, M & S DI-MS International Development (13%) and Soares da Costa ( 17%).
What and Why? - The 77 Kilometers, built at an estimated $238 million dollars, was financed by Autopistas Del Sol, a consortium based in Spain. The company agreed to complete the road in exchange of a 25 year, 6 month concession. This agreement allows the company to collect tolls on the road equivalent to 1120 colones (about $2 dollars) for the entire route. Here is the soon to open last stretch.
Pay us in Tolls - The first section to open was from San Jose to Cuidad Colon. When the first 310 colon toll collection started in Escazu, the opening resulted in traffic jams. Now frequent drivers on the road will be able to purchase a transponder pass, much like have been available in the US (Sunpass, EZpass, TollPass) to speed toll collection and limit traffic tie ups. There was a request to the Consejo Nacional to delay toll collection until the completion of additional work on the highway, which was rejected based on the long list of improvements that are already in place, including additional lanes in critical parts of the highway.
Illegal Entry - There have also been a number of "non sanctioned" entry points onto the new highway identified, especially in the Escazu and Santa Ana areas. After some were closed to traffic, access to some businesses was blocked, yet access roads are not yet available to replace these escapements. After some legal wrangling, access roads are now being built to deal with these issues.
Coastal Route Dream - The second completed section was from Orotina to Punteranas. This section will reduce traffic headed north on the Inter American highway since the new route from San Jose north will be faster than the old one. The last remaining section of roughly 40 kilometers, from Cuidad Colon to Orotina, is now open. it began operation on January 28th, 2010, 3 months ahead of schedule.
Autopista del Sol was authorized by the Consejo Nacional de Concesiones to begin collecting tolls on a newly renovated stretch of the Autopista Próspero Fernández between Parque La Sabana and Ciudad Colón, and now from Orotina to Caldera. Upon completion in March, the highway will go all the way from San Jose to Caldera on the Pacific coast. The road was designed to open San Jose to the port of Puntarenas. For drivers headed south, the road will cut roughly an hour off the current mountain route known as the Aguacate pass. This will bring the drive time from San Jose to Jaco to about an hour. The aguacate pass is a site of frequent accidents, weekend traffic back ups and occasional land slides. There are a number of single lane bridges along the route, numerous switch backs and grades to 10 degrees. Trucks along the pass frequently hold up traffic for miles and there are very few turn outs or passing zones along the route.
A few Mishaps - In building the new Autopista, a variety of mishaps have transpired. The Barva Aquifer was pierced at one point, a major water supply of the central valley. This stopped construction while repairs and a redesign was worked out. There was also an issue involving the negotiation of toll booths by police, fire and ambulance vehicles. Seems there was no lane designed for emergency vehicles, a necessity during rush hour.
Prize Winning Project - The European magazine Euromoney awarded a prize to this project as "Latin America PPP Deal of the Year" for managing to finance the Highway of the Sun unite the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) and Caja Madrid for the approval and implementation of the highway.
Financing - MIGA- The multilateral investment guarantee Agency, a division of the World Bank, loaned a total of 158 Million dollars towards the completion of the project. The initial construction order was approved by the CNC (National Concession Council) and MIGA issued $158.5 million in guarantees for the development of the toll road in Costa Rica. The guarantees are covering an equity investment by FCC Construcción S.A. and Itinere Infraestructura S.A., and a shareholder loan by Caja Madrid. MIGA is providing 15-year coverage for the equity against the risk of transfer restriction. The debt will be covered for up to 18 years against the risks of transfer restriction, expropriation, war and civil disturbance, and breach of contract. This 25-year concession will be the first highway concession in Costa Rica to successfully reach financial closing and begin operations.
Credits to Vanessa Loaiza N. and the Costa Rica news daily, La Nación - Costa Rica's largest Spanish circulation newspaper, for some of the information used in this article.
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Posted by Steve Linder on Tue, Dec 29, 2009
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Okay I admit it, I'm really busy these days. I leave tomorrow for Costa Rica to lead our 4 day Discovery tour running December 31 - January 3rd which is immediately followed by our 10 day country and property tour running January 4th - 13th. In the meantime, International Living did another article about our developments so I've also had to answer hundreds of emails. I am not complaining. So here, for the last entry into our blog for 2009, is our UPDATED slide show. We've worked over the last week to get it finished since our new video is not yet done. Take a moment to view the show, I think you will enjoy it. When you are finished, please comment about it via Digg, Delicious or Twitter. We thank you all for your loyal support this year and hope 2010 is a great one for all of you.
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Posted by Steve Linder on Mon, Dec 14, 2009
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Amazon.com Inc. said it will open a customer service center in Heredia, Costa Rica
The center, according to the Seattle online retail giant (NASDAQ: AMZN) will employ 300 people, with 400 seasonal workers expected to be added during the holiday season.
According to an Amazon statement, the facility will provide primarily phone support with some e-mail support for customers.
"Costa Rica has developed a great infrastructure that meets our needs, and is home to a number of existing customer service centers, which means we'll be able to draw on an experienced talent pool," said Brent Jaye, director of Amazon's North America customer service, in a statement.
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Posted by Steve Linder on Wed, Nov 18, 2009
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Update on Southern Zone International Airport
Although President Oscar Arias signed the order to build the new international airport in the Southern Zone almost two years ago, not much has happened since. We keep checking around Palmar Sur, stopping at the airport there now and asking questions about when to expect the new airport. Recently the staff at the existing airport seemed excited when I asked again.
Financing the Airport: We'd been told that the financing was approved but I recently saw a request for proposals for solicitations for bids to build and operate the airport on a concession basis, similar to current operation for both the Juan Santamaria Airport in San Jose and the Daniel Oduber Quiros Airport in Liberia. In July of 2009, ADC & HAS AIRPORTS in an equal joint venture with its Brazilian partner, Andrade Gutierrez Concessões, completed the acquisition of the contract for the development, investment and operation of the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica. It also owns a 45% interest in the newly awarded 20-year concession for the Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport, in Liberia, Costa Rica, which serves the growing tourist market in the northwest sector of the country. In both instances, ADC & HAS AIRPORTS is the airport operator as well as an equity investor. On 11/6/09 HAS Development Corporation (HASDC), an affiliate of the Houston Airport System, and Airport Development Corporation (ADC), a Canadian airport developer announced the formation of a long-term strategic partnership with OMERS Strategic Investments (OSI), a member of the OMERS Worldwide group of companies. The partnership operates under the brand name of ADC & HAS AIRPORTS. It is speculated that Costa Rica is soliciting to award a concession for the construction and operation of the new Southern Zone International Airport to the firm.
Recent Press: (July 16, 2009) alDia reported that the Arias administration is in deep negotiations with Panama's new President Ricardo Martinelli regarding the airport.
The airport would not only increase tourism in the Southern zone of Costa Rica, but it would also increase the number of visitors to Panama. Panama President Martinelli has expressed interest in helping Costa Rica get the airport built in a joint venture. The exact details are still being worked out and nothing formally has been announced. However, given the lack of news regarding the project and the current economic condition around the world this is great news for those who are thinking of visiting Costa Rica's Osa region, own real estate in the region or are thinking of purchasing land there.
Rodrigo Arias, Presidential Minister and brother of Oscar Arias, informed President Martinelli that Costa Rica has the land available, identified, surveyed and studied. The only remaining factor is funds to complete the project. The airport would be similar to Liberia International airport in Guanacaste in terms of size and capacity.
"From both a developer's and a tourism sector standpoint this is great news," commented Hanz Cruz, Deputy Mayor of San Isidro del General. "All of Costa Rica will benefit from this but especially the southern zone which is the most beautiful area of the country, but often overlooked by investors and tourists."
The majority of developments are in Guanacaste due to easy access through Liberia. This new airport will help the Southern zone tremendously and the developments there. The airport will also allow tourists to Panama an easy and fast way to visit the western region of the country. The Panama border is approximately one hour from Palmar Sur. Currently to fly into Panama's western region visitors must first fly into Panama City and then out to a regional airport (for example David). This will remove a step and save visitors and residents almost 1/2 day in travel time.
President Martinelli is also analyzing Costa Rica's great medical system and looking at ways to implement a similar system in Panama to help control costs and care for their aging population.
Published Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:39 PM in Al Dia, a leading newspaper in Costa Rica - by Nick Halverson
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