The Government of Costa Rica announced a plan geared towards promotion an economic reactivation.

Part of this plan includes simplifying processes eliminating the excess of procedures that many times are an obstacle for the private sector.

“We are presenting these actions, many of them we are already executing, that will allow us to be more competitive, thinking of a development that reaches all areas and is a benefit of everyone”, commented President Alvarado.

Edna Camacho, Coordinator of the Economic Team and the First Lady, Claudia Dobles were in charge of presenting this plan that involves different entities, and covers in addition to simplifying processes, the support of small and medium size companies and entrepreneurship, employability and investment in public infrastructure.

Some of the measures proposed are as follows:

-Reduction of the time it takes for service and manufacturing companies to begin operations in the country: Under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Commerce, and in a term of one year, companies that will begin operations in Costa Rica must go from a process that currently takes 406 days to one that can go from 30 to 45 days for service companies and 3 to 6 months for industrial or manufacturing companies. The processes must be able to be done online.

-Simplification in getting the operating Health Permit: Type A Companies that require the operating Health Permit from the Ministry of Health because the activities they develop could represent a sanitary or environmental risk currently have to go through a process that takes 91 days on average, this process must go down to 20 days which is the established goal.

-Regulatory Improvement and Simplification of Processes: Immediate actions that orders the Central Administration and instructs the Decentralized Administration to include in a National Procedure Catalogue all the processes, requirements and procedures that are valid and demanded from citizens, to bring down the number of documents each person must present.

-Digital Government: Create the use of digital technologies to improve the operation of the Public Sector.

The Steps being taken will also help the construction sector, through online processing of construction permits; the modernization of the “National Environmental Technical Secretariat” (SETENA), has already allowed the review of 856 files over the last three months.

Information on the actions for the support of small and medium size companies and entrepreneurships will be released today by the Government.