Nearly three million people either live, work, study, or do business in Costa Rica’s Greater Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM), which extends from the capital city of San Jose out to 34 cantons and 164 districts. This creates an overcrowded Central Valley, where more than half of the country’s human, economic and political resources are centralized. This situation is prompting debate about decentralization and moving the nation’s capital to another part of the country. Could Liberia become the next capital of Costa Rica?

According to Jaime Ordonez, Director of the Central American Institute of Governance, more than 80 percent of Costa Rica’s gross domestic product (GDP) is created in the region between San Ramon down to Cartago. There is no doubt that the Central Valley and the lower skirts of the pretty mountains that surround it are vital to the national economy. This is where small and medium enterprises (Spanish acronym: PYMES) provide 47 percent of national employment and contribute 30 percent of GDP.

Mr. Ordonez also points out that a staggering 77 percent of PYMES are in the GAM. This may be good news for the Central Valley, but it is deadly in terms of uniform development. As a result of high development in the GAM, we have regions such as Talamanca, where poverty and stagnant development are the norm. From the lowlands of Sarapiqui to essentially the entire province of Limon, and with the exception of Ciudad Quesada, Liberia and Guanacaste’s Gold Coast, development is just not happening outside of Costa Rica’s Central Valley.

Decentralization Could Benefit Costa Rica

An interesting observation made by Mr. Ordonez is that the national centralization around the GAM is tying up Costa Rica’s real shot at meaningful development. The main reason for this phenomenon is that virtually all of Costa Rica’s political and governmental institutions are in San Jose. He is quite familiar with this topic; after all, he has served in advisory positions to the government of Norway, UNICEF and the World Bank. He thinks that relieving the lovable city of San Jose from her capital duties would foment a more uniform development in Costa Rica.

Mr. Ordonez cites Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, as an example. In fact, he would not mind seeing the capital being relocated to the neglected Southern Zone of Costa Rica, which comprises the Osa Peninsula and the Talamanca region. This proposal, as noble as it seems, will likely face indigenous opposition. To this effect, another option would be Liberia in Guanacaste, home to entities such as the Ad Astra Rocket Company and EARTH University. Moving the nation’s capital may seem like a radical undertaking, but it is one that Costa Rica has done in the past when Cartago ceded capital duties to San Jose.

Source: Hablando Claro