Panama Canal Panama City, Mar 1 (EFE).- GUPC, the consortium building the new Panama Canal locks, said that in the next two months it would conduct more than 2,000 trials in the Pacific and Caribbean sectors of the expanded waterway, focusing on gates, valves, electric power and control systems. Some systems are already being operated from the control towers and the buildings where machines...

Source: British Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica On 2 February 2016, seven young women graduated from FEMBUZ (Female Entrepreneurs in Buffer Zones), a pilot project developed by Raleigh International with funding from the British Embassy San Jose. The programme was designed to strengthen the economic and social development of communities within protected areas in Costa Rica as well as to promot...

Solar Energy Park in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Palm Beach, FL, February 25, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Sun Fund Americas, SRL, a renewable energy development company headquartered in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and concentrating on the Caribbean and Central American markets has signed a 20mw Solar Power Purchase Agreement in the island nation of Jamaica. The project represents an investment of $50 mi...

Pixabay Public Domain Coffee responsibly grown in a rain forest farm in Costa Rica will be showcased by a major Ontario university. York University’s annual fair trade fair will take place Wednesday, Feb. 24 in the Bear Pit near Central Square from 10am to 4pm. The fair will feature a range of fair trade products including arts and crafts, coffee and tea, chocolate, t-shirts and more. In ad...

WirelessDevNet.com Press Release - ICT professionals and government policy makers wanting to present their strategies for progressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals at the IFIP World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) 2016 have two weeks to submit their papers and demo proposals for review. March 1st 2016 is the deadline for submissions, with the event scheduled to be held...

File photo Caracas, Feb 18 (EFE).- The former presidents of Costa Rica and Poland - Oscar Arias and Lech Walesa, respectively, both of whom are Nobel Peace Prize winners - are in Venezuela to support political prisoners and on Thursday participated in a special session of parliament at which they criticized the country's economic model and urged lawmakers to work together to get out of the cur...

Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo, Feb 16 (EFE).- Real estate prices fell between 15 percent and 20 percent in Brazil last year and the sector will remain "under pressure" until mid-2017, credit rating agency Moody's said Tuesday. Brazil's real estate industry has been in a cyclical downturn since 2012, with the slump coming after a period of rapid growth, Moody's said. The downturn has intensifi...

OECD News Release - 15/02/16 - Costa Rica has made impressive economic, social and environmental progress, but further institutional and policy reforms will be necessary to ensure stronger and more inclusive growth, according to the first-ever OECD Economic Assessment of Costa Rica. ‌ The Assessment, presented in San José today by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Costa Rican President L...

Ingram Micro CINDE News Release - San Jose, Costa Rica. US based Ingram Micro Inc. officially opened its shared services center and its second facility in Costa Rica. It began operations with 135 employees but due to the increase in functions, languages and geographies forecast to serve, the company projects to double that number in the coming months. The inauguration took place last Thurs...

Source: Presidencia de Costa Rica Emirates News Agency Press Release - SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, 13th February, 2016 (WAM) -- President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis, yesterday received H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The two sides discussed cooperation and ways to enhance it in the best interest of the two countries. Dur...

Panama Canal Panama City, Feb 13 (EFE).- The Panama Canal Authority, or ACP, said a successful test was conducted on a section of the new third set of locks where cracks were discovered last year. The test by the GUPC consortium responsible for the new locks, led by Spanish construction group Sacyr Vallehermoso, consisted of gradually raising the water behind Gate No. 6 of the Cocoli locks ...

Ana Helena Chacon Echeverria, Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica witnessed the signing of the document. Source: Cisco Cisco Press Release - SAN JOSE, Costa Rica 11 February 2016 – In order to exchange information and share best practices to support the digital agenda for Costa Rica, the Telecommunications Vice Ministry, a specialized unit from MICITT (Ministerio de Ciencia Tecnología...

NTT Data Plano, TX – February 11, 2016 – NTT DATA, Inc., a leading IT services provider, announced today that it has opened a new service delivery center located in San Jose Costa Rica, to support its growing business in North America. The addition of the Costa Rica center strengthens the company’s ability to respond quickly and efficiently to client needs with accelerated solutions that lever...

Customers in a branch of Banco de Costa Rica New York, February 09, 2016 -- Moody's Investors Service has today changed the outlook on the long-term local currency deposit and foreign currency deposit and senior unsecured debt ratings of Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) and Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's affirmed the banks' long and short-term l...

Source: Banco Central New York, February 08, 2016 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has today changed the outlook on the Government of Costa Rica's Ba1 issuer rating to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's has affirmed Costa Rica's Ba1 senior unsecured and issuer ratings. The decision to change the outlook reflects Moody's expectation that the lack of political consensus to ...

Indeed.com AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Indeed announced today it started 2016 with record unique visitors, with more than 200 million over the past 31 days. Indeed also announced it added eight additional markets where job seekers will have access to the most jobs on the web. The announcement builds upon a strong 2015, which solidified Indeed’s position as the number one job site in the ...

Source: CINDE CINDE Press Release - The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) will be participating at this year's MD&M West event in Anaheim, California. Learn more and identify key investment opportunities in Costa Rica to gain competitive advantages for your business. When: Feb. 9 - 11 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Where: Booth 1647- Hall D....

Source: Wikimedia Commons SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mobile operators today announced a series of new initiatives as part of the WeCare Costa Rica campaign run by the GSMA to provide a safer and more reliable environment for all mobile users. Operators Claro, ICE and Telefónica will work together to fight mobile phone theft as well as facilitate greater accessibility for consumers ...

The growth of medical and dental tourism in modern society is worthy of socioeconomic research, which is precisely what investigative journalist Sasha Issenberg has accomplished in a new book. When it comes to dental tourism, Costa Rica is the darling of the Americas. In Europe, Costa Rica's counterpart nation is the Republic of Hungary, where dental tourists from across Western Europe flock to...

Wikimedia Commons BOGOTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has announced its first confirmed speakers for its annual Global Summit, which will be held in Bogota, Colombia (April 26-28 2016). A recent report published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), titled “Working Together to Connect the World by 2020” notes that only 3.2 billion people are online, while 4.2 ...

Wikimedia Commons The USAID/OFDA Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Regional Office in Costa Rica is seeking one individual for a Secretary position. Please see the posting for this job at the website of the United States Embassy in Costa Rica. VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 2016-001 OPEN TO: All Interested Candidates POSITION: Secretary, FSN-6; FP-08* OPENING DATE: January 22, 201...

Wikimedia Commons In recent years, the idea of Costa Rica being a very expensive country has been widely reported in news headlines. Many North American expats who moved to Costa Rica believe that this is possibly the most expensive country in the world; nonetheless, this is not an assertion held by MoveHub, an online information exchange website for professionals and families who relocate int...

TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 01, 2016) - Scotiabank announced today that it has acquired Citigroup's consumer and commercial banking operations in Costa Rica and Panama. The signing of these acquisitions was announced in July 2015 and the transactions are valued at approximately USD$360 million. "These acquisitions align with our strategy to deepen relationships and inc...

Miravalles geothermal power plant WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With demand for clean electricity on the rise, international attention has turned to geothermal energy with a highlight being the declaration of 38 countries forming the Global Geothermal Alliance at the Paris Climate Conference. Building on this momentum, the Geothermal Energy Association's (GEA) U.S. and International Geothermal ...

Source: Pixabay Commons NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad y Subsidiarias' (Grupo ICE) foreign- and local-currency Issuer Default Ratings (FC/LC IDRs) at 'BB+' and its National Scale ratings at 'AAA(cri)'. The Rating Outlook remains Negative. A complete list of rating actions follows at the end of this release. Grupo ICE's ratings a...

Source: iCafe BioNovelus, a clean tech company that aims to offer a portfolio of green solutions for various applications, recently received positive results from lab and field trials showing BioNovelus’ technology as an effective, eco-friendly biopesticide against Hemileia vastatrix, the fungus named “coffee rust,” or “roya” in Central and South America. The company hopes to put this eco-f...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Jan 27 (EFE).- The average annual percentage rate on Brazilian credit cards climbed to 431.4 percent in December, its highest level since that statistic began to be published in March 2011, the Central Bank said in a statement Wednesday. The average credit card APR rose by 16.1 percentage points in December compared with November and by 99.8 percentage poin...

Source: Marcopolo Flickr Marcopolo S.A. Press Release - Marcopolo has just signed a new contract for the export of buses to some of the main transport operators in Costa Rica. The vehicles with different characteristics, will be used for urban, tourism and interstate transportation. "For a long time we have dedicated ourselves to broaden our bus sales, mainly to other Latin American countri...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 25 (EFE).- The Panama Canal is operating normally and was not affected by the sinking of a Venezuelan-flagged cargo ship that collided with another vessel at the Caribbean entrance to the interoceanic waterway, administrators said Monday. "The sinking of this vessel is not affecting the operations or traffic in the aquatic waterway," said the Panama Canal Autho...

Evonik headquarters SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Jan. 19th, 2015 -  Evonik Industries, a leading global specialty chemical company based in Essen, Germany, announced today that it plans to open a financial shared services center in Costa Rica to serve the company’s operations in North and South America. Evonik will begin office construction and hiring during the first quarter of 2016 and expec...

Source: ICE CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Reventazon Finance Trust's (RFT) US$135 million fixed-rate notes as follows: --US$135 million fixed-rate notes at 'BBB-'; Outlook Negative. The transaction is backed by a 100% participation interest in the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) B-Loan acquired through a participation agreement. Since IDB continues to be le...

File photo EIU Press Release According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Democracy Index one of the biggest threats to democracy is the anxious mood of our times The fearful era in which we live is not conducive to defending democratic standards or extending democracy's reach across the globe. The latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index reflects the sit...

Source; Banco Central de Costa Rica NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Costa Rica's Long-term foreign- and local-currency IDRs at 'BB+'. The Rating Outlook is Negative. The issue ratings on Costa Rica's senior unsecured foreign- and local-currency bonds have been affirmed at 'BB+'. The Short-term foreign-currency IDR has been affirmed at 'B' and the Country Ceiling at 'BBB-'...

The number of foreign visitors from China increased significantly in 2015, but the Tourism Board of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: ICT) would like to see even greater growth. According to a news report filed by Diego Perez Damasco of national newspaper La Prensa Libre, the year-over-year increase of Chinese tourists in Costa Rica was nearly 30 percent last year. Still, the overall number of tour...

By Alfonso Fernandez Washington, Jan 19 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- One of every five people in Latin America between the ages of 15 and 24 is neither in school nor working and two-thirds of them are women, according to a World Bank study released Tuesday. The figure represents more than 20 million people in the region and the problem is especially acute in Central Ame...

Tourists who come to Costa Rica seeking affordable dental procedures are getting younger and more attuned to the idea of going abroad for treatment, and this is a trend that can be expected to expand this decade. As the North American members of the Millennial Generation join the workforce and the enterprise world, the dental industry is rushing to understand these young adults for the purpose ...

Aspen Institute Fellows from across the Aspen Global Leadership Network, all of whom will have attended both the Challenge of Leadership Seminar as well as the Aspen Seminar, are currently in Costa Rica for the Leading in an Era of Globalization seminar. In the Challenge of Leadership Seminar, Fellows were asked to reflect on the attributes of “effective, enlightened leadership”; in the Asp...

Source: Abbott CINDE Press Release - With the presence of Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and Abbott Vascular Division Senior Vice President Mr. Deepak Nath, the company celebrated the fifth anniversary of its vascular devices manufacturing plant in Costa Rica, whose products are distributed and used around the world. Abbott has been in Costa Rica for over 80 years through the sa...

Wikimedia Commons The leading provider of foreign currency in the United Kingdom recently named Australia, Costa Rica, Iceland, Vietnam and Peru as being among the top vacation hotspots for 2016 in terms of exchange leverage. The strength of the British pound sterling looks set to play a pivotal role in holiday destination choice according to the Holiday Money Report 2016 from Post Office T...

A Walmart store in Escazu, Costa Rica. File photo Washington, Jan 15 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on Friday announced plans to close 269 stores and lay off 16,000 employees, 6,000 of them outside the United States. In a news release, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said it would close 154 stores in the United States and...