Costa Rican Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Jhon Fonseca, concluded a third round of negotiations on a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) centered on attracting investments for the country’s planned “megaport” on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

At the site of the Moín, Limón port, an expanded facility with improved capacity and logistics aims to be able to receive over two and a half million containers, said the Foreign Trade Ministry this week.

The expansion is already 70 percent complete, and the country seeks investors for the final push in order to complete the project within a year.

“This project gives us a unique capacity to become a center for logistics services and distribution of services, dry goods, and fresh food products in the region,” said Fonseca.

The expanded port is part of a larger project to enhance Costa Rica’s connectivity with the Central American region and the world. New border posts with expedited customs procedures are in the works on the country’s Nicaraguan and Panamanian borders, and a dry canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts has been proposed in the northern region of the country.

“We believe we can become the UAE’s entry point to market its products in our region,” added the Costa Rican official.

Costa Rica recently established an embassy in the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi.

“We want to start promoting and stimulating investment between both countries, and on our side, we are giving investors security and confidence so that they can do business with instruments that protect them,” he added.

During his visit, Deputy Minister Fonseca met with the undersecretary of finance of the Emirates, Younis Khouri, to conclude a reciprocal investment protection treaty.