Weekly review

CAFTA is law

The Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is law in Costa Rica. President Oscar Arias signed the law, but the Agreement won’t be effective until Congress passes the supplementary bills needed for the application of the CAFTA, which is already effective in the other four Central American nations and the Dominican Republic. President Arias said that it is unethical for the opposition to prevent the approval of the supplementary bills, because that way it is going against the will of the majority of Costa Ricans, who last October 7 voted Yes to the CAFTA.

An open nation

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Costa Rica ranks second regarding opening to globalization, according to an index made by the Latin Business Chronicle. Panama once more ranked first, while Brazil was last, in spite of its strong commerce.

Fiscal stability

Finance Minister Guillermo Zuniga forecast that fiscal stability in Costa Rica will hold next year. In order to attain that goal, the Government will apply strong controls on wage and pension increases, which have been the two major triggers of governmental spending in recent years. Zuniga pointed out that as long as the public treasure remains healthy, it will be possible to allocate more funds to social spending, mainly to lower poverty.

Top democracy

Costa Rica is for democracy like no other nation in Latin America, where that political system has lost ground during the last year, according to the international organization Latinobarometro. The percentage of Costa Ricans who favor democracy increased from 75 percent in 2006 to 83 percent this year, when the first referendum ever was held, the organization reports.

Over 1 million turtles

Even though three weeks later than usual, the major spawning season of the parrot turtle at Ostional Beach, in the Costa Rican northwestern Pacific, began in earnest. Over a million turtles arrived, according to biologist Rodrigo Morera. The expert said that the number surpasses that recorded last year, which was under a million. Morera further explained that turtles arrive 11 times a year, but massively they do so once; at other times they number only 40 to 100 individuals. Besides Ostional Beach, Nancite Beach –also in Costa Rica–, Escobilla Beach in Mexico, and the Orissa region, in India, are the world’s major spawning sites for the parrot turtle.

Marine corridor

More than 250 commercial fishermen from 38 nations met in Costa Rica and pledged to support the protection of the so-called Pacific Marine Corridor, which is made up of the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Cocos Island (Costa Rica), Coiba Island (Panama) and Malpelo and Gorgona islands (Colombia). Excepting Gorgona, the other four are part of Mankind’s Heritage, because of their biodiversity. World Wildlife Fund Robin Davies pointed out that fishermen and scientists have to work together in order to attain a balance that benefits both nature and the industry.

Effort against finning

The environmentalist foundation MarViva launched a campaign aimed at making the Government improve its control of shark finning. Even though Costa Rica law prohibits and punishes cutting the fins of sharks, the activity is out of control, environmentalists have confirmed, even with films of the practice. MarViva’s regional director Jorge Jimenez explained that sharks are at the top in the food chain and that a radical decrease of their ranks is most likely to disrupt the balance of the species that are below and which are the key to commercial fishing.

$60-million plant

German auto part firm Continental AG will invest $60 million in a plant here. The facility will be located at the El Coyol Free Zone, in Alajuela, close to Juan Santamaria International Airport. Free Zone manager Carlos Wong said that at first Continental will mean 350 new jobs, but that the number will increase to 1,000 as operations progress.