Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Jan 15 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's administration, using constitutionally granted decree powers, on Friday declared a 60-day, nationwide state of economic emergency. The measure, extendable by an additional 60 days, is intended to "protect the people from existing threats," the country's vice president for the economy, Luis Salas, said af...

Alleged Greenwashing by Infinito Gold VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 15, 2016) - Infinito Gold Ltd. ("Infinito") (NEX:IG.H) is pleased to announce that it entered into a litigation funding agreement effective December 21, 2015 ("LFA). Under the terms of the LFA, the funder has agreed to provide non-recourse financing to Infinito in connection with the legal costs of Infini...

Beijing, Jan 15 (EFE).- China's central bank said Friday it had extended 100 billion yuan ($15.18 billion) in loans to nine financial institutions, 10 days after announcing a similar operation to boost liquidity in the market. The injection of funds, which comes amid a slowdown in China's economy, was carried out via medium-term loans (six-month maturity) with an interest rate of 3.25 percent a...

Maritime Executive Press Release - GT USA announced the January 2016 launch of the new Blue Stream weekly container cargo service connecting Port Canaveral to Europe, the French West Indies, and Central America. The Blue Stream service is operated by StreamLines, N.V., part of the Seatrade Group, providing refrigerated and dry container service to and from the Canaveral Cargo Terminal, with a f...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Jan 12 (EFE).- As the sun rose Tuesday on the statues of U.S. presidents outside Puerto Rico's capitol building, four of them were seen to be painted with aerosol, an act of vandalism coinciding with a congressional hearing in Washington that could be key to the island's ability to declare bankruptcy. The suspects, of whom three have been arrested, sprayed red pa...

Wikimedia Commons CHICAGO, Jan. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A.T. Kearney today released its 2016 Global Services Location Index™ (GSLI), a research paper that analyzes and ranks the top 55 countries for outsourcing worldwide based on metrics in three categories: financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment. T he GSLI brings rigor to companies' location dec...

FreeStockPhotos.biz The looming economy crisis in Latin America is becoming more apparent with new reports from Mexico and Venezuela. The national currency of Mexico showed signs of retail weakness as global markets plummeted due to concerns about reduced growth of the Chinese economy, and the price of crude oil produced in Venezuela, an OPEC member nation, fell well below $30. The followin...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 9 (EFE).- The consortium responsible for the main Panama Canal expansion project is the subject of a criminal complaint in the Central American country for allegedly inflating its cost overrun claims. National Bar Association Vice President Juan Carlos Arauz filed the complaint, to which EFE gained access, on Thursday with Panama's Attorney General's Office. ...

File photo The iconic Imperial beer eagle has landed at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), the main hub for air travel in Costa Rica. According to a news report published by business daily La Republica, beverage giant Florida Ice & Farm has taken the unusual step of opening an airport bar right across from boarding gate #9 at SJO. The bar tentatively opened in early Decemb...

FacePhi Alicante, 5th January 2016.- FacePhi, a biometrics tech firm based in Spain, has been awarded a tender for the use of face recognition to authenticate the clients of Banco Nacional of Costa Rica. This contract will make the clients of the biggest financial entity of Costa Rica to access to their accounts and check their balances quickly and in a secure way using the advanced technology...

NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2016 - The 2016 New York Times Travel Show will open its doors Friday, Jan. 8, exclusively to travel professionals and writers for its Trade Day. The Travel Show will welcome all visitors Saturday, Jan. 9, and Sunday, Jan. 10. The Travel Show will feature more than 500 exhibitors, representing 150 countries, with representatives who will be available to offer expert insights, ...

Costa Rica's rapid rise in the last decade to become a global hub for foreign direct investment is spurring a new wave of investment opportunities in trending sectors, boosted by an expanded tax incentives package. Costa Rica is already home to more than 275 high-tech multinational companies like Intel, Amazon, HP Enterprise, P&G, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical and Abbott. The country ...

Café de Costa Rica (iCafé), an organization responsible for coffee production and export from Costa Rica, announced that it has selected Sopexa as its public relations agency in the United States. “We look forward to developing a long-term relationship with the Sopexa team, whose passion embodies those of our producers,” said Mario Arroyo Uder, marketing lead for Icafé. “Sopexa’s deep beverage ...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 2 (EFE).- President Juan Carlos Varela said Saturday that the inauguration of a newly expanded Panama Canal would take place in May in the presence of several heads of state and government, while also calling on the consortium responsible for the third-locks project to stop waging a media battle with his government. "Sometime in May 2016, our country will once ...

Caribbean News Service By Desmond Brown, Caribbean News Service (CNS) SAN JOSE – In mid-December, technical officers from six Caribbean countries traveled to Costa Rica to learn about new ways of adding value to cassava production and modern technologies for processing the vegetable, in order to boost the industry, promote the diversification of markets, and improve the chain’s competitiven...

Source; Flickr Commons Since its launch in December 2014, The "Know Your Customer" (KYC) Registry has been adopted by more than 100 financial institutions in Latin America to complement existing compliance programs. In several jurisdictions across the region, the Registry has been endorsed by either a Central Bank or financial communities, including the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica a...

Flickr Commons A more competitive marketplace is expected for the weight control and fitness industry in Costa Rica in 2016, a country where the rate of obesity has increased gradually over the last few years. According to a new report by Fast Market Research, players in this industry will have to adjust to innovation in 2016. Integral dietary approaches that often start with detox techniqu...

Gamesa will bring wind energy production to Guanacaste Gamesa Press Release - Gamesa and Iberdrola Ingeniería have signed EPC contracts with subsidiaries of Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy (GME) to build 80 MW in Costa Rica. The two companies will handle all the construction and commissioning phases required for this project, named Alisios, which comprises four 20-MW wind farms: Vientos de la P...

File photo LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Employees who work in the non-government business sector in Costa Rica should expect a salary raise next year that will be slightly lower than in 2015. A forecast issued earlier this month by Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY), the preeminent global people and organizational advisory firm, reveals that workers around the world are expected see real wage increas...

Source: iCafe By Joel Clement, Director, Office of Policy Analysis at the United States Department of the Interior How do we work with diverse ecosystems and landscapes to address climate change? How can we help these natural systems build resilience and pull more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? Globally, the degradation of forests, agricultural areas, wetlands and other important la...

Source: Telefonica Madrid, December 2015. Telefónica will launch video services in seven new Latin American markets in 2016, which will mainly be VoD (video on demand) services and linear television channels. These markets are Ecuador, Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The launch will be staggered throughout next year, and the service mode available in each cou...

Panama Canal Panama City, Dec 23 (EFE).- The inauguration of the Panama Canal expansion will be delayed for six months if the ACP, the public entity administering the interocean waterway, does not make more flexible its bureaucratic and payment procedures, Giuseppe Quarta, the director of GUPC, the consortium that is handling the project, said Wednesday. "We ... (can) deliver the project" b...

BICSA in Panama. Wikimedia Commons PANAMA CITY, Dec. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. ("Bladex" or the "Bank") (NYSE: BLX) announced today the closing of a US$50 million, 3-Year Senior Unsecured Term Loan Facility for Banco Internacional de Costa Rica S.A. ("BICSA"). BICSA is a bank established in Panama and owned by Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Nac...

Fiserv Costa Rica BROOKFIELD, Wis. & BARREAL DE HEREDIA, Costa Rica--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that a web-based application created during the Fiserv 2nd Annual Programathon will further the education of 50,190 schoolchildren in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. Bringing together ...

Pixabay Commons OpenFinance, a BME subsidiary specializing in the development and implementation of technology solutions for financial advice and portfolio management, has signed an agreement with Aldesa Corporación de Inversiones for implementing its Openworkplace® platform. It will also carry out management activities with its clients and tracking product portfolios within the financial firm...

Zollner in Cartago Competing with successful companies requires a continuous supply of initiatives, ideas and concepts. One of the companies achieving success in the midst of intense global competition is Zollner AG, an electronic manufacturing services (EMS) market leader from Zandt, located in the Eastern Bavarian Forest of Germany. Founder Manfred Zollner can proudly look back on 50 year...

Desyfin office in Grecia LUXEMBOURG, December 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sustainability | Finance | Real Economies SICAV - SIF (SFRE, pronounced Sapphire) has made its first investments totalling just under USD 10 million in Banco Vision (Paraguay) and Financiera Desyfin (Costa Rica), in line with its strategy of advancing social, environmental and economic development by providing capital to ba...

Source: Crowley.com (SAN JOSE, Costa Rica; Dec. 17, 2015) - Crowley Maritime Corp.'s liner and logistics group in Central America recently received National Road Safety Recognition from the Costa Rica Ministry of Public Works for their focus on regional, national and local road safety. During an awards ceremony, which took place Dec. 10, in San José, Costa Rica, Crowley was recognized for thei...

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA--(Marketwired - Dec 15, 2015) - The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE, in Spanish) and the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) reported that foreign investment businesses in the Services, Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Light Manufacturing and Food Industry sectors generated a total of 12,000 new jobs in 2015. According to Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director...

Oveedia desktop. Source: Pure LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Dec 9, 2015) - Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. (OTC PINK: PNOW), parent Company of the Central American-Caribbean online travel Agency (OTA), Oveedia (www.Oveedia.com), announced today, that the Company has made significant strides over the past several weeks in preparation for a successful New Year. "Although we have been quiet w...

Source: VMware CINDE Press Release - San José, Costa Rica. 10 December 2015. VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, today inaugurated its new operations center in Costa Rica. During inauguration ceremonies, the company announced its intention to continue to hire local talent and grow its presence in the local market. The inauguration of ...

Source: iCafe COSTA RICA, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- During last month's International Coffee Week (SINTERCAFE), an event that gathered more than 500 professionals of the coffee industry from around the world, Café de Costa Rica announced its commitment to becoming the world's first fully environmentally sustainable coffee-producing region. "With growing exports towards the United States,...

WASHINGTON, DC – Illicit financial flows from developing and emerging economies surged to  US$1.1 trillion in 2013, according to a study released Wednesday by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advisory organization. Authored by GFI Chief Economist Dev Kar and GFI Junior Economist Joseph Spanjers, the report pegs cumulative illicit outflows from developing econom...

Wikimedia Commons MANHATTAN, Kansas. – The Kansas Department of Agriculture is seeking individuals to participate in a beef genetics trade mission to Costa Rica on Feb. 22-26, 2016. In an effort to increase market opportunities for U.S. and Kansas beef genetics, this provides an opportunity for Kansas purebred beef cattle producers and allied industry to continue developing relationships w...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After a decade-long commodity super cycle, the 2016 growth outlook for Latin America remains subdued as external and domestic risks persist, says Fitch Ratings in a new special report. Against this backdrop, Fitch expects little upward sovereign rating movement in the region in 2016. To the contrary, negative rating pressures could increase if countries are unable to adj...

"FedReserve Atlanta" by Atlantacitizen at the English language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons MDC Press Release - Miami, December 4, 2015 - Miami Dade College (MDC) Provost of Operations Dr. Rolando Montoya has been unanimously elected as the new Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Miami Branch. Dr. Montoya has been serving on the Board since Janu...

Fast Market Research Press Release - Costa Rica has a well-established tourism industry that benefits from the country's positive image as safe, peaceful and happy. The country's tourism products are diverse, with a wide variety of options for all traveler segments. While Costa Rica is known for its eco- and adventure tourism, the country is also developing its medical, holistic and educational se...

NEW YORK & SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following its peer review of the Costa Rican State-owned banks, Fitch Ratings took rating actions on the following entities: --Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR); --Banco de Costa Rica (BCR); --Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal (BPDC). Fitch has published Rating Action Commentaries (RACs) for each of these banks, which are...

Moody's Global Credit Research - New York, November 30, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has assigned a definitive rating of Ba2 to Aeris Holdings Costa Rica S.A. de C.V.'s ("Aeris") senior notes issuance of US $127 million ("Notes"). The outlook is stable. On September 18, 2015 Moody's assigned a provisional (P) Ba2 rating based upon draft documentation. The definitive Ba2 rating is...

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA--(Marketwired - Nov 27, 2015) - The Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE) held a forum on Research and Development, with the purpose of analyzing the potentialities of Costa Rica to grow investments related to this industry, as well as the challenges to assume in order to position as a globally preferred destination for such investments. The event counte...