—Currently a situation of rivalry between government institutions in Costa Rica hinders efforts to improve small-scale fisheries, found a case study on Costa Rica. A report released this week by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Fisheries Expert Group analyzed the role o...

By Wendy Anders Last week the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement this month for US$280,000 to support mechanisms for managing public works programs in the country. The donation is designed to support the Costa Rican government as they adopt technical, legal, administrative and procedural reforms. Specific out...

Washington, Feb. 14 — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday eliminated a rule approved during the Barack Obama administration that required energy firms to make public their payments to foreign governments, one of the many Democratic regulations that the Republicans want to ax. Trump signed a bill pushed by Republican congressional leaders repealing a regulation finalized last year by the Securi...

By Wendy Anders South Korea will hold meetings this week with six Central American countries for a legal review of their pending free trade agreement, said South Korean media sources. A team from Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will meet its counterparts from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras for three days of negotiations starting Monday, Feb....

By Wendy Anders Panama, one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the past decade, is raising eyebrows among development economists at Harvard University for its dramatic inequality. Researchers Ricardo Hausmann, Luis Espinoza and Miguel Angel Santos at Harvard’s Center for International Development say sharp income equality, coupled with growth based primarily around constructi...

By Wendy Anders An estimated 123,000 people throughout the country benefited from Costa Rica’s National Bank (Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, BNCR) growing social responsibility program in 2016, said the financial entity last week. The bank’s vision of a sustainable management model includes outreach throughout the country to provide volunteers in poor communities, holding financial education ...

By Wendy Anders Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico met for the second conference of the commission that administers the Central America-Mexico free trade agreement. The Costa Rica delegation was led by Jhon Fonseca, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade. During the event, the leaders analyzed the evolution of the region’s trade, and stressed the ...

Jan. 26 — A diesel pipeline in Iowa ruptured Wednesday morning, sending tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel to pool on a local farm, but officials say it appears none made it to any water supply before clean-up operations started. Magellan Midstream Partners shut down its diesel pipeline running through north-central Iowa on Wednesday after it ruptured for an unknown reason, spewing 138...

By Wendy Anders Private-sector construction in Costa Rica grew in the fourth quarter of 2016 at a year-on-year rate of 10.6 percent, showing a rebound in activity after showing negative rates of growth since the final quarter of 2015 (with the exception of the first quarter of 2016), said Costa Rica’s Central Bank this week. The amount of construction in the fourth quarter of 2016 was 1,163,...

The president of the United States intends to impose a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico to cover the cost of a wall spanning the nations' border, the White House spokesman told reporters on board Air Force One, Donald Trump has already made up his mind about the tax, Sean Spicer said. The tax, however, cannot be immediately levied because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)...

By Wendy Anders If you’re planning to bring more than $10,000 in cash or securities into Costa Rica on your next trip, be sure to declare it on your customs form, said Costa Rican customs officials yesterday. This oversight by a 70-year-old U.S. man, who was heading to the beach in Costa Rica, cost him US$19,900, said the Finance Ministry’s Customs Department. The man, who entered the Dan...

By Wendy Anders The reintroduction of a bill that would allow ocean trawling has environmental groups in Costa Rica up in arms at the government’s support for such practices. “Trawling is the most destructive fishing technique, and there are no studies anywhere in the world that demonstrate its sustainability,” said a coaltion of 15 environmental groups, who noted that the draft of law 19,83...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the New York Stock Exchange's blue-chip index, closed above 20,000 for the first time in its history on Wednesday, while two other leading stock market indexes - the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite - both set new record highs. The Dow closed at 20,068.51, up 0.78 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.80 percent at 2,298.37 and the Nasdaq climbed 0.9...

Uncertainty surrounding the economic policy in the United States under the new administration will bring financial stability to Asian markets during the first half of 2017, prominent economists and strategists of HSBC in Hong Kong said Thursday. Several financiers of the world's sixth largest bank by total assets said Donald Trump's political strategies will spur economic development during the f...

Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solís, during his visit this month to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah announced his country will establish an embassy and commercial office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In an interview with EFE during his first tour of an Arab state, he said that the opening of both initiatives has already been approved with the goal of "broadening and consolidating bila...

January 16, 2017: Forty of the world's biggest companies agreed Monday find sustainable ways to make and consume plastic as the waste threatens the globe’s eco-systems, especially oceans, said international media reporting on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The planet's dangerously polluted oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish by 2050 if urgent action isn't taken, th...

By Wendy Anders A recent report by the World Bank shows some startling truths about economic inequality. Three of the world’s least equitable countries are Costa Rica’s neighbors, on the narrow Central American isthmus connecting Mexico with South America. Honduras, is ranked as the 6th most unequal by the World Bank, followed by Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, and Panama in 10th place. The ...

By Wendy Anders The annual Big Mac Index published by The Economist revealed its most recent data on the fast food product Thursday. And, not surprisingly, here in Costa Rica, we pay a relatively high price for McDonald’s emblematic meal. According to the index, a big mac in Costa Rica costs 2,250 colones, which is $4.06 at the current exchange rate of 554.33 colones to the U.S. dollar. ...

Mexico City, Jan. 14 — A fish endemic to Mexico's Gulf of California has been the target of poaching for decades because its swim bladder is highly coveted in China, where it is believed to possess aphrodisiac and medicinal properties. Illegal fishing of the critically endangered totoaba furthermore threatens to drive another unique marine species to extinction, such as the vaquita, a type of p...

By Wendy Anders Beyond the direct and indirect economic benefits derived from tourism, Costa Rica’s Tourism Institute (ICT, in Spanish) wanted to start measuring the industry’s broader impacts on local communities. In a first study, done last year, they interviewed residents in 10 such towns, and now have a baseline for monitoring progress. "We wanted to measure social progress in these t...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, in Spanish) announced Thursday immediate measures intended to bolster the country’s largest old age, disability and life insurance fund (IVM, in Spanish) to ensure its viability in the long term, said the CCSS press office. The agency’s board of directors approved five short-term measures this week to bolster the state pension fun...

The Jamaica Tourist Board has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with United States-based online company Airbnb Inc. for the promotion of the country’s tourism product, particularly in the area of accommodation. Airbnb is an online marketplace that connects people wanting to rent their homes and spaces with people needing affordable accommodations. Minister of Tourism Hon. Edmund Bartlett ...

By Wendy Anders During 2016, the Costa Rican economy benefited from a favorable macroeconomic environment, allowing the country's economy to maintain stable behavior; however, according to economists at Costa Rica’a ACOBO Financial Group this could change in 2017, causing some indicators such as the exchange rate, interest rates, and inflation to rise. According to Luis Diego Herrera, econom...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís signed a new law designed to fight tax fraud on December 19, 2016 that will affect owners who rent properties for less than a month at a time, said tax officials this week. Officials reminded owners of various residences, cabins and other lodgings offered on sites such as AirBnB for short-term rental that they are required to pay Cos...

Mexico City, Jan. 3 — The Mexican government expressed disappointment following Tuesday's announcement by the Ford Motor Co. that it was abandoning plans for a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico. Mexico will see to it that Ford reimburses the San Luis Potosi state government for any expenditures of public money made in furtherance of the project, the Economy Secretariat said in a statement. ...

By Wendy Anders Last week, AOL.com reported that the Cuban government wants to settle a debt with The Czech Republic in a rather alternative, but perhaps attractive way: with liquor. Apparently a bit short on cash as the country emerges out of decades of communist rule, Cuba hopes to pay off this Cold War debt with none other than their famous rum. According to Bloomberg News, the debt is...

By Wendy Anders A zero interest purchase promotion, photo for illustrative purposes. Costa Ricans significantly increased their credit card debt this year, and were also found to be victims of misleading special programs and promotions, said the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) in a special report on credit cards. The Ministry’s Consumer Support Division evaluated specia...

Faced with a more than 10  percent decline in exports this year, Panamanian authorities traveled to exchange information with Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) to learn from Costa Rica's recent success exporting more than 100 products to different markets. Panama's official delegation included Deputy Minister Nestor Gonzalez, Exports Director Leyda Gonzalez, and directors of the Pa...

MIAMI, USA -- A New York City resident pleaded guilty on Monday, December 12 in connection with a sophisticated Caribbean cell-phone fraud scheme that involved compromising cell-phone customers’ accounts and “cloning” their phones to make fraudulent international calls. The United States Department of Justice. Farintong Calderon, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire ...

Guerima, Colombia, Dec. 17 — The "drug triangle," formed by the Colombian villages of Guerima, Chupave and Puerto Principe, was famous for its coca leaf production under drug lord Carlos Lehder and later under the FARC. A rural peasant, photo for illustrative purposes. Now, as peace becomes a reality, people here are trying to replace that tarnished past with perfectly legal cacao crops. G...

  By Wendy Anders A river in southern Costa Rica. Last week, the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) held a public hearing on the proposed 7.25 MW San Rafael Hydroelectric Project. An estimated 400 local residents filled the communal hall of San Pedro, Perez Zeledon in southern Costa Rica to protest the project, reported Costa Rica’s TV Sur. A local group called the San Ra...

By Wendy Anders Zollner in Cartago, a new foreign investment in 2016. This year saw 40 new investment projects in the multinational services, life sciences, advanced and light manufacturing, and food industry sectors, reported the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE), in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) in a press conference yesterday. The busin...

By Wendy Anders Increased rainfall caused by the mid-November cold front followed by Hurricane Otto in late November resulted in large losses for Costa Rica’s coffee producers in the regions of Coto Brus and Perez Zeledon. To date, Coto Brus and part of Buenos Aires, in Costa Rica’s extreme south, have experienced a loss of up to 25 percent this year’s crop, or an estimated 50,000 bushels, a...

Barcelona (Spain), Dec. 11 — Santiago Peralta went from being an Ecuadorean peasant, raising cows and selling guinea pigs as a child, to being ranked the Best Chocolatier in the World by the Fine Chocolate Industries Association (FCIA). "Thank God I've never been to any chocolate school," says the founder of the family company Pacari, to EFE in Barcelona, who boasts growing the first organic co...

By Wendy Anders Residents of a public nursing home in Costa Rica, source Facebook. Welcome to the Latin America of contrasts. Whereas Costa Rica used to be a relatively egalitarian society, that can no longer be said, as the gap between the very rich and very poor widens each day, said researchers at the State of the Nation (Estado de la Nación) institute. A recent list of the country to...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica cell phone tower. The Superintendence of Telecommunications (Sutel) postponed until the first quarter of 2017 a decision on whether market competition conditions exist in Costa Rica’s postpaid mobile telephony service, reported the superindentency’s office yesterday. After a thorough analysis of the country’s 11 telecommunication markets, Sutel determined there...

CANNON BALL, N.D., Dec. 4 — After weeks of growing protests, the federal government announced Sunday it will not issue a permit for the construction of a stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline have amassed up to 5,000 people from all over the US and the world, source Facebook. The Army Corps of Engineers said it will not give an easemen...

Lack of sleep among the U.S. working population is costing the economy up to $411 billion a year, which is 2.28 percent of the country's GDP, a new report finds. Map showing economic costs of insufficient sleep across five OECD countries. Credit: RAND Corporation According to researchers at the not-for-profit research organisation RAND Europe, part of the RAND Corporation, sleep deprivation...

By Wendy Anders University students in Nicola, Guanacaste. According to the San José, Costa Rica-based American University (UAM, its acronym in Spanish), students who push to earn a college degree can wind up earning up to a 60 percent higher salary than their counterparts who don’t. According to recent census data, there are a total of 703,000 people with a higher education degree in Co...

By Wendy Anders Moín, Limón port. The French container company, CMA CGM S.A., the third largest container company in the world, alerted that a closure of a pier at the Moín dock in Limón on Costa Rica’s Atlantic coast has led to delays. The delays will translate into an emergency surcharge for ships docking at the Moín port as of December 1, and will apply until the pier is reopened, sai...