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Tag: Costa Rica

Costa Rica Internet Usage Facts and Figures

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Source: Tico Times

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
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

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in 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

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in 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 | [email protected]
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

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in 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

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica Business, Costa Rica education, Government.

By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
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.
Costa Homes For Sale Near Monkeys
Live in Costa Rica and volunteer at a local animal sanctuary

Costa Rica Insurance Market Opening Up

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica Business, Costa Rica tourism.

Original:http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_09/090210.htm#story2

As readers may remember, one of the provisions of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) was that the National Insurance Institute’s monopoly in the insurance market (since 1924) had to be broken.

In July 2008, laws were changed to allow this, and in August 2008 the Insurance Superintendency (SUGESE) was formed to oversee the entire industry. Shortly thereafter, SUGESE enacted a series of regulations establishing the conditions whereby new actors in the market can become licensed, as well as the conditions for the operation of the entire insurance industry.

To obtain a license to operate, insurance companies (also brokerages and agencies) must go through a complex process, greatly summarized as follows:

1. An application must be presented to SUGESE, outlining the corporate details and a business plan for the first three years. I have heard of application dossiers of nearly 1,000 pages.

2. If SUGESE finds the dossier clear and complete, it accepts it for study. If not complete, if additional information is required or if some of the conditions are not acceptable to SUGESE, a two-month delay ensues while the information is completed, supplemented or corrected by the applicant.

3. When the application is to the satisfaction of SUGESE, it issues an autorización condicionada (conditional authorization) whereby the applicant is given two months to get his act together and fulfill the promises made to SUGESE: form a corporation, set up the books, arrange for office space and equipment, hire personnel, install computer programs, establish a costly guarantee, etc., etc.

4. When all is in place, SUGESE sends an inspector to so verify. Anything missing or not to the satisfaction of SUGESE means a delay of up to two months. When all is well, SUGESE will issue a licencia de funcionamiento (operating license).

Once the operating license is in hand, one would think that insurance companies could open for business. Not so. There are still some steps missing:

1. All insurance products (types of policies) have to be vetted by SUGESE, which will study the contract conditions, monetary viability, reserves to be established, pricing, etc.

2. The sales force must be licensed. If an insurance company is going to sell through in-house agents, each must be individually licensed by SUGESE, which will require an entire dossier outlining and proving relevant studies and/or work experience. If sales are going to be focused through brokerages, these must be licensed by SUGESE, as must each broker working within a brokerage.

As my readers can imagine, this all takes time. What is the current situation?

Insurance Companies

–The National Insurance Institute, or INS, the “ex-monopoly,” is smartening up. Products have been improved, and premiums have been reduced in the lines where there is incipient competition. They have a full line of approved products, which they sell through several hundred agents and about 80 agencies (TT, Aug. 20).

–Mapfre, a world-class Spanish insurer, was licensed to sell auto insurance as of June. Sales are through about 50 in-house agents, but Mapfre will also operate through brokerages.

–Alico Costa Rica, a subsidiary of a company owned by American International Group and in the process of being acquired by MetLife, has had some group life and medical products approved, which it will offer through brokerages. The company expects to have individual products ready by January 2011.

–Pan-American Life Insurance Company, from the United States, expects to have approval at the end of August to sell group life and medical products. Individual policies will be available in early 2011. Sales will be through brokerages.

–ASSA, the foremost Panamanian company, has received approval for 13 products in dollars and 13 products in colones. These include casualty products such as liability, auto, fire, etc., but not personal insurance. Sales are through brokers.

–Seguros Bolívar, from Colombia, received its conditional authorization on May 13.

–Aseguradora del Istmo of Panama received its conditional authorization on May 12.

–Quálitas of Mexico received its conditional authorization on Aug. 13.

Brokerages

–Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Nacional have established brokerages whose function is to protect and insure the banks’ portfolios.

–Avanto, the first “private” brokerage, came on stream July 7. It has two licensed brokers.

–Confía received its conditional authorization June 29.

–Unity received its conditional authorization July 27.

–Unicen, of which the writer is a partner, expects to come on stream late August with three brokers.

The opinions and viewpoints expressed are those of the writer. Our purpose is to give the reader a better understanding of insurance in Costa Rica. For more information, contact David Garrett at 2233-9520 or[email protected].

Andre Agassi – Pete Sampras to Play in Costa Rica

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica Sport, Costa Rica tourism.

Original: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/081010.htm#story4

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
Tennis legends Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras are scheduled to face off Sept. 4 in Alajuela, northwest of San José, as part of the Andre Agassi Farewell Tour, which kicked off May 22 in Puerto Rico. The tour, which stops in seven Latin American countries, will raise money for international education charities, according to tour organizers.

Pete Sampras Andre Agassi
Pete & Andre will play against each other Sept 4, 2010, in Costa Rica

Agassi and Sampras, who won a combined 22 Grand Slam titles in the ’90s and early ’00s, will play a three-set match at Alajuela’s Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium, which will be fitted with a synthetic-surface tennis court for the event. Women players Anna Kournikova and Ashley Harkleroad are also scheduled to play in a doubles match as part of the tour.

Agassi, who won eight Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal for the United States in 1996, retired in 2006 after a 20-year professional career. Sampras, also from the U.S., won 14 Grand Slam titles in a 15-year career that ended in 2003. Sampras held the record for the most Grand Slam titles won until 2009, when the Swiss Roger Federer eclipsed that mark. Both Sampras and Agassi were ranked as the world’s top player during their careers.

The women’s match will feature Kournikova and Harkleroad as doubles partners against an unnamed duo. Both are known more for their extracurricular activities than their brief professional careers. Kournikova, who twice won the Australian Open doubles title with partner Martina Hingis, received more media attention for her relationship with pop singer Enrique Iglesias and her appearance in several men’s magazines, including the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition in 2004, than for her tennis. Harkleroad, who is still playing professionally – though sparingly – is best known for posing nude for the August 2008 edition of Playboy magazine. Harkleroad was the first professional tennis player to appear in the magazine.

Costa Rica Government to Invest $140 million to Coffee Farmers

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Coffee, Costa Rica Business.

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
A trust fund worth $140 million will be devoted to helping Costa Rican coffee growers over the next four years, the government of President Laura Chinchilla announced Thursday. In an effort to improve ailing coffee exports, which fell by 41 percent in 2009, the Agriculture Ministry, the Banco Nacional, the Development Bank System and the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica ( ICAFE) plan to use the funds to put 30,000 hectares of land into production.

“For many years, coffee exports have been one of the motors in the Costa Rican economy,” said Guido Vargas, president of ICAFE’s board of directors. “The reduction in production has greatly affected farms and families in several regions of the country. We have survived, but hopefully this assistance will return coffee production to its level of previous years.”

After a banner year in 2008, when the Costa Rican coffee sector generated exports worth $339 million, the value of exports in 2009 fell to $198 million. The largest decreases in exports were seen in coffee from the northern and Central Valley regions. According to ICAFE, the average production per hectare fell from 27 to 21 sacks between 2001 and 2010. The institute also mentioned that during the same time frame, nearly 36 percent of the coffee plants used in production reached the end of their 25-year harvest life.

Should the $140 million trust achieve its goal of revitalizing 30,000 hectares of land for coffee production, it would increase the current area dedicated to coffee by about 30 percent, which could account for an additional 2.5 million sacks of coffee. Currently, 98,681 hectares are committed to coffee production in the country.

The program’s financial assistance will be distributed to an estimated 50,000 coffee producers throughout the country.

“This is a very important day for the national coffee industry,” said Agriculture Minister Gloria Abraham. “It is a sector in the hands of small producers who are highly efficient and productive and who in the last few years have been confronted with the aging of their plantations. The National Coffee Growers Revitalization Program will install policies to ensure that this sector is again as productive as it can be.”

Ninth Insurance Company Opens in Costa Rica

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in CAFTA, Costa Rica Business.

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]

http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/081710.htm#story5

Good news to all vehicle owners!!
The Quálitas Insurance Company, a Mexico-based auto insurer, has been approved to compete in the Costa Rican insurance market. Quálitas, which insures an estimated 20 percent of Mexico’s drivers, is the ninth company to be approved by the Insurance Superintendency (SUGESE) to operate in Costa Rica. The country’s insurance market was opened to competition when the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA) came into effect on Jan. 1, 2009. Prior to CAFTA, the National Insurance Institute (INS) had been the country’s sole insurance provider since its creation in 1924.

According to a press release by SUGESE, Quálitas has been approved conditionally. Quálitas has four months to meet additional requisites set by SUGESE before it can sell policies in Costa Rica.

Quálitas, which has provided auto insurance in Mexico since 1994, also sells policies in El Salvador.

Quálitas joins INS, Alico, Mapfre, Seguros del Magisterio, Assa, Pan American Life, Aseguradora del Istmo Adisa, and Seguros Bolivar as an approved insurance provider in Costa Rica.

President Chinchilla Launches Costa Rica Day Care Network

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica education, Government, Laura Chinchilla.

By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]

Original:http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/081710.htm#story1

Costa Rica’s first female president, Laura Chinchilla, officially launched the National Daycare Network today with a pledge of ¢ 890 million ($1.8 million) to the poorest communities in ten areas of the country.

The money is expected to bring care to 400 children under five years of age, enabling their mothers or fathers to pursue jobs outside the home.

The effort is much more than just a push to open more day care centers, Chinchilla said at a press conference on Monday. The idea of the network is to reach children at a critical stage in their development so that every Costa Rican starts life with the same opportunities.

Early childcare is an area in which Costa Rica continues to have many shortcomings, she said.

The money will be used to expand existing facilities such as community homes and government-run daycare centers, and to offer loans so that more women can operate daycare centers from their homes.

The plan is being introduced as part of a larger agenda of reducing extreme poverty in Costa Rica by a full 10 percent, Chinchilla said.

At present, aid arrives to poor homes in pieces. Sometimes a son or daughter can get a scholarship, other times a parent receives job training, but what these families need, Chinchilla said, is an integrated push from all sides to get them on their feet.

By bringing aid to communities in an integral way, she hopes to permanently reduce poverty.

In keeping with this coordinated approach, the ten areas where the administration is focusing the daycare initiative are also the focus of the poverty relief plan. These include Los Chiles, Guatuso, Upala, La Cruz, Santa Cruz, Nicoya, Cartago, Curridabat, Heredia and San José.

New Costa Rica Call Center to Add up to 500 jobs

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica Business.

Source:http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/081910.htm#story2
By Sophia Klempner
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
The Sunnyvale, California-based Motif is one of a growing cadre of foreign companies setting up shop in Costa Rica. Now with 185 employees, up from an initial 100 in late January, the company projects growing to 500 employees by 2012, said Andrea Centeno, communications director at the Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE).

This week marked the inauguration of Motif’s renovated 2,200-square-meter building in the America Free Zone in Heredia, north of San José. It joins Hewlett-Packard, StarTek and others at the facility near the Real Cariari shopping mall. Described on its website as “a business process outsourcing company serving Fortune 500 clients,” Motif’s Costa Rica office will provide telephone and e-mail services in both English and Spanish to clients of a prominent U.S. travel agency.

Costa Rica has benefited from its position as what Centeno calls an “efficient, or cost-effective, destination for foreign direct investment primarily in the areas of services (call center-type operations), advanced manufacturing (including microprocessors, automotive parts and aeronautics, among others), and medical device manufacturing.” While these three areas are all “very dynamic sectors of the economy,” Centeno described the service sector’s 2,800 percent increase in jobs over the past nine years as “wild.”

Costa Rica excels at providing attractively priced, highly trained workers, a growing number of whom have enough mastery of English to provide customer services to U.S.-based businesses via phone and e-mail. While countries like Chile attract natural resource-oriented investment due to their mineral riches, and others attract foreign investment for access to their markets, Costa Rica’s competitive edge lies in its human capital, said Centeno.

Snapshot of the Most Dynamic Foreign Direct Investment Sectors 2000 and 2009

SECTOR Com-panies 2000 Jobs 2000 Com-panies 2009 Jobs 2009 % increase in companies % increase in jobs
Services 5 1,065 95 28,416 1,800% 2,568%
Medical device manufacturing 8 1,500 31 9,376 288% 525%
Advanced manufacturing* 30 4,500 55 13,000 83% 188%
TOTAL 43 7,065 181 50,792 321% 619%
*Advanced manufacturing includes computer microprocessors, automotive parts, aeronautics and metal manufacturing.

Source: Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE)

Costa Rican Adventure Race

Written by Costa Rica Las Villas on . Posted in Costa Rica Sport, Costa Rica tourism.

Original: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/082310.htm#story4

By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | [email protected]
Ziplining at Osa
Ziplines on Osa Mountain Village

Eighteen teams with members from 13 nations will compete in the race. Each team is made up of three men and one woman and will have only a map and a compass to guide them across the country. According to Miguel Andrades, the co-founder of Aventuras de Sarapiqui, one of the race organizers, six of the teams are composed of all Costa Ricans.

“Two of the Costa Rican teams are very, very strong, and should have a good chance to win it,” Andrades said. “All the teams in the competition are at a very high level. This race has attracted the best of the best.”

The winner of the Costa Rican Adventure Race will qualify for the 8th Adventure Race World Championship, which will be held in Spain from Sept. 30 to Oct. 9. Over 50 international teams are expected to compete for the World Championship.

The Costa Rican Adventure Race is being hosted by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT). According to Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides, Costa Rica hopes to host the Adventure Race World Championship in 2013.