Yesterday, April 1st, Costa Rica elected its President for the next four years, the candidate of the Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), Carlos Alvarado.

With the support of 60.66% of the voters, Carlos Alvarado became the 48th president of Costa Rica. Carlos is a 38 year-old journalist, he was the Labor Minister and one of the counselors for PAC in congress during the 2006-2010 period, he consultant of the Institute of Development Studies in the UK and was the director of communication for the Luis Guillermo Solis campaign. He is married to Claudia Dobles and has one son.

Carlos Alvarado built his presidential campaign around the defense of Human Rights and the call for unity in the Country; but what are the main priorities for his four years of government?

Fiscal Deficit: Implementation of value added tax (IVA) leaving the current 13%. Modernization of income tax to ensure that each person pays according to their economic capacity. Containing public expenses, the public sector can not grow more than 1% annually through 2020 and 1.55% in 2021 and 2022.

Foreign Investment: Simplifying procedures, strengthening public education and the use of technology. Attraction of foreign investment to areas outside the great metropolitan area.

Infrastructure: Electric Passenger Train connecting Alajuela, Heredia, San Jose and Cartago. Dividing the metropolitan areas into sectors for public transportation with the idea of eliminating all the public traffic from going through the city of San Jose. Transformation of urban spaces to include areas for cyclists and pedestrians. Finishing the works that are currently in process or that already had financing such as the road to San Carlos, the expansion of Route 32 as well as Circunvalación Norte.

Environment: Creation of an Environmental tax for manufacturers and importers of non-reusable plastic containers, except those non-reusable plastics used for articles that are part of the market basket. Implementation of the National Policy of Sanitation of Residual Waters. Against trawling.

Security: Professionalization of the Police Bodies consolidating the SART mechanism, (Early Alert and Response System) and providing them with the necessary tools to efficiently carry out their work. Battling money laundering and terrorism by strengthening controls of regulatory entities; strict control over the use and ownership of fire weapons, improvement of aerial and maritime surveillance through the use of radars. Use of scanners in the frontiers to battle contraband and proper control to avoid corruption acts.

Inequity: Generation of employment focusing in the creation of job opportunities outside the great metropolitan areas. Establishment of economic clusters that promote national and foreign investment in different regions. Private and public alliances. Promote the advantages of each region. Promote the participation of women and the population with disabilities in the labor market.