The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, April 23, 2004

WARM welcome: Sila María Calderón, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, receives a bouquet of flowers from school children during the first day of her visit to Costa Rica yesterday. Calderón met with President Abel Pacheco (center right) and inaugurated a Puerto Rican trade promotion office.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

Governor of Puerto Rico Visits,
Aims to Foster Trade with Region
During the first day of a two-day visit to Costa Rica yesterday, Sila María Calderón, governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, met with President Abel Pacheco and inaugurated a Trade Promotion Office aimed at fostering trade between Central America and Puerto Rico.
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April 23

National Symphony Orchestra Concert
Performances are tonight at 8 p.m. and Sun., April 25, at 10:30 a.m. at the National Theater, Ave. 2, Ca. 3/5 in San José. Info: 236-5395.

Painting Contest For Students
Elementary and high-school students should bring their materials, paper, pencils, paints, etc., to paint about the topic of “23 Years of Good Relationship between the Governments of Costa Rica and China” 8:30 a.m.-noon, Sat., April 24, in front of the Art Museum, La Sabana Park. Info: 234-0241.

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Governor of Puerto Rico Visits,
Aims to Foster Trade with Region
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

During the first day of a two-day visit to Costa Rica yesterday, Sila María Calderón, governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, met with President Abel Pacheco and inaugurated a Trade Promotion Office aimed at fostering trade between Central America and Puerto Rico.

“We’re here to advance our economic relations,” Calderón said during a brief press conference following her meeting with Pacheco. “It’s the right moment, given that you [Costa Rica] have brilliantly finished negotiating the free-trade agreement between the United States and Central America (CAFTA). This will produce conditions that will favor continued advances of our economic and commercial goals.”

Puerto Rico operates under U.S. customs jurisdiction, and allows free movement of people and goods between the island and the rest of the United States. In that sense, CAFTA is expected to create additional trade opportunities between Central America and Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is Costa Rica’s 10th largest trading partner. Last year, Costa Rica exported $161.9 million to Puerto Rico. Medical infusion equipment made up more than 50% of Costa Rica’s exports to the island. Other exports included beef, plastic containers, thread and cables. Roughly 60% of Costa Rican exports to Puerto Rico are unfinished goods that are processed and finalized on the island, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX).

Last year, Costa Rica imported $15.6 million in Puerto Rican goods. Filters, medicines, plastic and beverage mixes were the products Costa Rica imported the most, according to COMEX.

“The goal of this office is to maintain and increase trade between Puerto Rico and Costa Rica,” Calderón said. “... The office will serve as a facilitator of trade, in that sense it could facilitate contacts for all types of alliances.”

President Abel Pacheco called the office a valuable tool that would help both countries make the most of the existing trade opportunities, as well as new ones that would be created by CAFTA, which still must be approved by the U.S. Congress and Costa Rican Legislative Assembly.

“This office will bring commercial benefits, for both Costa Rica and Puerto Rico,” Pacheco said. “We both share an important concern about small, medium and micro businesses. We are interested in spreading wealth.”

He described Puerto Rico as a large market and potential distribution center for Costa Rican agricultural products.

“Puerto Rico is interested in our tropical fruits and tubers, which can be processed there and shipped to the United States,” Pacheco explained. “Puerto Rico can be a multi-million dollar opportunity for small Costa Rican exporters, Puerto Rican commercializers and consumers in the United States. Everyone wins.”

Puerto Rico has trade promotion offices in Chile, Dominican Republic and Panama. The office inaugurated yesterday replaces Puerto Rico’s original Costa Rican trade promotion office, which was closed in 2001.

After her meeting with Pacheco, Calderón received the keys to San José from city mayor Johnny Araya.

Calderón was accompanied on her trip by a group of 11 representatives of Puerto Rican plastics and tube manufacturers and medical service providers, who took part in several networking meetings with Costa Rican business leaders.

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Costa Ricans Read to Learn,
Not For Fun, on World Book Day

Just more than 3% of Costa Ricans read for amusement, the Universidad Nacional (UNA) announced yesterday in honor of today’s World Book Day.

The results of a recent poll by the university revealed 83.2 % of reading is done to learn, to become informed or to deepen knowledge.

Academician Carlos Rubio, of UNA’s Center of Investigation and Teaching in Education, although pleased that few said they read “out of obligation,” said he is very concerned that so few Costa Ricans read for fun.

Rubio attributes the lack of pleasure Costa Ricans find in reading to the manner in which literature is taught in schools. The interpretation of literary works is “official” and defined, including identification of literary figures and primary and secondary themes, according to Rubio.

This leaves very little room for personal interpretation from students and minimizes the possible appreciation of the artistic work, Rubio said.

Ultimately, he said, “unsuccessful readers” are created, who rarely return to books after their studies are completed.

In response to questions in the same poll of what types of materials Costa Ricans read, 91.8 % said newspapers, 71.5% said religious texts, 60.3 % said literary works and 59.3% said magazines.

World Book Day is celebrated annually April 23 – the anniversary of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. Critics generally consider the latter to be author of the first literary work in Spanish, Don Quixote, according to the Ministry of Education.

The Costa Rican government officially agreed to commemorate World Book Day in 1986. The Ministry will use the day to remind children of the value of reading, and inform them about the history of books and their impact on society, officials said.

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Vaccination Week
Begins Tomorrow

Costa Rica will take advantage of the Week of Vaccination, celebrated throughout Central America and the Caribbean next week, to administer shots to those who need them.

Beginning tomorrow through April 30, authorities in participating countries will help millions of people catch up on their vaccinations, focusing on people living in rural areas far from principal medical centers.

Costa Rican medical centers will use the week to fortify their programs of routine vaccination. The vast majority of people in this country are vaccinated against a host of diseases, according to health officials.

They said 91.5% are vaccinated against tuberculosis, 94.3% against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, 94.3% against polio and 92.5% against Hepatitis B.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005