Gold miner Ascot Mining said proceeds from production at its Chassoul mine in Costa Rica continue to be reinvested to improve operational reliability there. The mill is now working satisfactorily and has been running without interruption, the firm told investors, as it unveiled results for the six months to March 31. Continued increases in the processing of newly mined ore and improvements i...

Clarito M. Barron, director of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said that while the US has given the Philippine government “an inkling” about granting local bananas access to its market, feasibility remains a sticking point. “Of course we would want this, but look at what happened to our mangoes,” said Mr. Barron. In 2001, the Philippines was granted the authority to export mangoes produce...

For sea-weary California Maritime Academy cadets Friday morning was all about coming home. Cadet Kevin Hawkins was thrilled to not only to be on the Vallejo campus but to see six people from home waving at him as the Golden Bear training ship slid into port. Hawkins was among 288 students (also called cadets) and 57 officers and staff aboard the Golden Bear training ship who arrived safely a...

Coffee farmers in the world's top producer, Brazil, have been shielded to some extent from the sharp fall in arabica prices by rising yields, traders said on Thursday. Lower prices are compensated by much higher yields, said Carlos Brando, director at P&A Marketing International, the speciality coffee and coffee machine exporter. P&A data shows that average Brazilian coffee yields have nearly ...

Copa Airlines has added Liberia, in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, to its list of destinations with the launch of a new flight from Panama. The new Tocumen (Panama) – Liberia (Costa Rica) route operates on Sundays and Thursdays, departing Panama at 09:52 and arriving in Liberia at 10:23. The return flight departs Liberia at 11:25 and arrives in Panama at 13:58 on both days. For ...

Banco BAC San José S.A., Costa Rica’s largest private bank, will get a loan of as much as $40 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to expand mortgage financing and lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The IDB loan will provide Banco BAC with longer term financing that will allow the bank to offer mortgages to middle and lower middle-income families. It will al...

Children around the world are too frequently denied clean air, water and land because of decisions made in the past over which they had no control. To that end, UNICEF's Children's Rights and Business Principles state that companies must respect and support children's rights in relation to the environment and land use. One increasing trend in product sourcing, the support of fair trade certificati...

Ssang Yong is back in Costa Rica again. The South Korean company utilizes Mercedes Benz drive-train technology to build off-road vehicles. In 2009-2010 Ssang Yong ceased operations in Latin America due to the global recession. Now it seems that the Korean company has reorganized its Latin American department. First they returned to their most productive foreign market (Chile) in 2011. Then, the...

“Yo Emprendedor” (I Entrepreneur) has started its 5th annual initiative in Costa Rica to give opportunity to future entrepreneurs. The initiative helps business developers showcase their plans and aids them in gaining the resources that will increase the probability of success in their enterprises. “It’s the person who makes and enables technological and scientific progress. We need a nation of...

IDB (The Inter-American Development Bank) has granted the approval of a $250 million loan for Costa Rica’s electricity sector. The money will be used to meet the projected 5.1% yearly increase in electricity demands and to raise standards of living. The plan proposes to add 1,714 MW of installed energy capacity over twelve years (2012 to 2024). 77% of the current capacity is created by renewabl...

As taxes continue to rise in the United States, the upcoming expiration of the Bush Administration tax cuts and a proposed 55 percent tax increase on the horizon for the wealthy, an increasing amount of the United States’ wealthier population is disillusioned. They are deciding to jump ship at record numbers. One of the co-founders of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, also made the same choice recently. ...

This week, TACA Airlines, Copa Airlines and Avianca joined the Star Alliance. If you are unfamiliar with the major Global Airline Alliances, they are: Star Alliance (United and US Airways), SkyTeam (Delta), and oneworld (American Airlines). What the alliances do is increase your ability to have better coordination of scheduling between different airlines. This results in efficient connection ti...

Boris Marchegiani The Costa Rica Institute of Tourism (ICT in Spanish), an important government agency, has been inflating tourism figures over the last few months -according to the president of an industry association that represents more than 500 small businesses engaged in the hospitality and entertainment sector. Boris Marchegiani, president of the Association for the Protection of Tourism ...

Walmart is doing its part as a major corporation for sustainable efforts while minimizing waste. In 2011 alone, the Walmart recycling program helped to avoid the usage of over 45 thousand cubic meters of landfill area. This was achieved by their waste management and recycling program’s ability to save and recycle 6272 tons of cardboard and around 900 tons of plastic. These numbers are presented...

Marcos Adolfo and Christopher Zelaya, electric utility technicians from Coopeguanacaste, got to take advantage of a training program with the Georgia electric co-op Coweta-Fayette EMC. The 14 day training session focused on the safe construction of lines and working with live lines (lines that have energy running through them). Marcos and Christopher can now take the information and skills that...

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) closed last year with ¢22 billion in net losses. 63 years after its foundation, it is rumored that this state institution may be suffering the same financial problems that other institutions like the Social Security Fund (CCSS) are going through. These rumors arose from a report submitted to the Ministry of Finance indicating that the institution had a n...

It has finally happened, as of 8AM this morning you can get a hot cup of Starbucks Coffee at Avenida Escazu Costa Rica. The hours of operation for the new store are planned to be 7am to 11pm on Sunday to Thursday and 7am to midnight on Friday and Saturday. But for the first few business days the famously named coffee shop will remain open after hours until the last person leaves. According to V...

Minimum wage increase negotiations have begun here in Costa Rica. And now, after furious union representatives gawked in anger at the 5,000.00 colon raise that President Laura Chinchilla Miranda proposed during negotiations in the first half of the year, Public and Private sector union officials finally submitted their salary increase proposal. The union group gave two proposals, one of 4.95% a...

“Costa Rica has taken advantage of the favorable trade agreements that it has signed” Says Anabel Gonzolez, Cost Rica’s Foreign Trade Minister of the recent growth of the country’s exported goods. Costa Rica has almost doubled its gross export revenue over the last ten years. Exports went up to $10.5 billion in 2011. In 2002, out bound Costa Rican products only amounted to $5.2 billion. This...

On November 1st of 2002, the first Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement (CCRFTA) went into effect. The objectives of the FTA were mainly: creating economic development establishing free trade eliminating trade barriers promoting fair competition The agreement showed almost immediate positive results and within three years trade between the two countries jumped from 324 million to 44...

Okapee started off as an idea, we wanted to give the Costa Rican market a completely new option in fashion. The name comes from the animal (Okapi) which is one of the rarest breeds on earth. We opened our doors last October becoming Costa Rica's first streetwear (shop/boutique). Our brands are not your run of the mill brands, they are very exclusive and unique to our shop. We pride ourselves o...

One thing that most major cities throughout the world have in common is the cultural enclave known as Chinatown. Areas known as Chinatown normally offer many restaurants, hotels, services, Chinese food and supply markets and products. Not only is it an ethnic comfort area for Chinese people to run or start their businesses, but Chinatowns are commonly sought out by tourists for their goods and cul...

As of June 1st, a new set of regulations has come into effect based on the requirements established by Consejo de Seguridad Vial (COSEVI) which Riteve will have to adjust for by training their staff, calibrating their machines properly and opening up even more branches across the country.  After the recent renewal of their contract for another 10 years, Riteve is studying the possibility of openin...

The forty seven year old Spanish railway company FEVE, has recently struck a 5.56 million dollar deal (plus shipping and handling) with INCOFER –Instituto Costarricense ferrocarriles- (Costa Rican Railway Institute). The deal involved INCOFER purchasing six FEVE Apollo 2400 commuter train sets which are due to be delivered within 2012. The early 1980’s model refurbished trains are part of INCOF...

As part of Costa Rica's initiative to become a carbon-neutral country by 2021, the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) recently announced that 140 megawatts of clean electricity will be delivered to households and businesses by 2015. According to a recent article by Stephan Nielsen of Bloomberg financial media, ICE is committed to producing 100 megawatts of electricity from different wind ...

For the first time in this decade and the second in the 21st century, the sovereign debt of Costa Rica will be put up for auction in the form of global bonds issued in U.S. dollars. According to a report filed by Katia Porzecanski and Adam Williams of Bloomberg Businessweek, the debt issuance could see as much as $4 billion worth of bonds -a lot more than what was initially planned by the former ...

SAN JOSE - Universidad de las Ventas (Sales University) is the first academic institute dedicated to training the sales forces of businesses in Costa Rica. Do you have telephone sales personnel and account executives in Costa Rica? Do they know how to execute upon a solid script that will pique the interest of prospects and clients? Do they know how to present your product or services in an inter...

Miami, June 13, 2012: Tourists are in love with Costa Rica. This is indicated by the US$1.3 billion to spend this year in our country, 15% more than in 2011, according to the second annual Global Destinations Cities Index from MasterCard. The research reveals that San Jose, Costa Rica, ranks sixth in disbursement of money for tourists. The first place is Mexico, the second Buenos Aires, the third ...

The Improsa Investment and Fund Management Company is happy to announce the recommencement of construction of the third and final stage of the Multipark project, which belongs to the Improsa Real Estate Development Fund of Costa Rica. The project is part of the first real estate development fund of its kind in Costa Rica, and it consists of a corporate park and office center located in Guachipelín...

According to an article in La Nacion, all economic activities in Costa Rica continue to grow and the financial services and insurance sectors have grown the most. The good performance of the economy has prompted Costa Rican’s and companies doing business here to seek more credit and exchange currency in higher volumes, According to information released on June 11, 2012 by the Central Bank, e...

The President of the Republic of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla and the Vice Premier of China Zhang Gaoli met last Friday to celebrate five years of bilateral relations. That meeting also saw the signing of an agreement between the nations to seek funding for a joint oil refinery project. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Roverssi told journalists in a news conference that the meeting served t...

The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide $1.6 million in non-reimbursable co-op funds to Costa Rica in the next two years. On Tuesday, May 29th Mr. Jose Graziano da Silva, general director of FAO, made the announcement following a meeting in Rome, Italy with President Laura Chinchilla Miranda, Minister of Agriculture Gloria Abraham, and the Chancell...

A United States citizen and Dallas-area resident facing criminal fraud charges has been denied bail and remanded back to custody after a federal judge in Oklahoma determined he was likely to flee to Costa Rica. David Harper of the Tulsa World newspaper reported that Joshua Wayne Lankford appeared in court earlier this week after U.S. Marshalls tracked him down in Costa Rica. He is part of a group...

Earlier this week, President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua introduced a legislative proposal that would authorize the construction of a canal that would allow ship transit from the Caribbean to the Atlantic, according to a news report from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) published on Yahoo News. Officials in Costa Rica reacted to the news by demanding an explanation from Nicaragua over concerns that s...

SAN JOSE - The twelfth edition of Expo Hotels and Restaurants (EXPHORE) will take place at Pedregal Events in Heredia, Costa Rica, in June 2012, from Tuesday 19th to Thursday 22nd. The objective of EXPHORE is to promote the commercial development of hotels and restaurants sectors in Costa Rica and Central America.

 This event will bring together key actors in the sector, where more than 200 stan...

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT in Spanish) recently announced the tenth anniversary of the Accreditation Entity in Costa Rica (ECA), an independent public agency created in 2002 by Law number 8279, the National System for Quality Assurance. ECA was enacted for the purpose of granting certifications and accreditation credentials to the products, services and processes created and em...

In the world's driest desert, a summit of leaders of various Latin American nations -including Costa Rica- met yesterday to sign a new trade agreement that could bring the region closer to the Asia Pacific shipping and commerce lanes. The Atacama Desert and the port city of Antofagasta in Chile welcomed representatives from Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. This is the fourth summ...

Costa Rica might be a haven for outsourcing and nearshoring, but some of our country's labor laws could make the most staunch and cunning capitalists have second thoughts about setting up operations here. Still, collective bargaining, unions, employee associations, vacation, sick days, minimum wages, maternity leave, and other rights afforded to workers in Costa Rica are conditions that companies ...

Stepping into an AMPM or a Fresh Market store in Costa Rica is an experience similar to the 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States or the Circle K or Mac's stores in Canada. Ticos are increasingly warming up to these stores, which are slowly displacing the traditional pulperias that can still be found in working-class suburban neighborhoods and rural communities. According to a recent...

The Associated Ecological Communities of La Ceiba and Friends of the Earth in Costa Rica (COECOCEIBA in Spanish) is a non-profit organization that since 1999 has been dedicated to different environmental protection campaigns. Members of COECOCEIBA are farmers, environmentalists and academics. COECOCEIBA recently published an opinion regarding Volkswagen's new Think Blue campaign, which has receive...