Limited Job Creation Still
Worries Costa Rican Businesses

The generation of only 13,000 jobs in 2004 has business people worried, and showing little faith the situation will improve this year, according to a survey released this week by the Costa Rican Union of Private-Sector Chambers and Associations (UCCAEP).

On a scale of 1 to 10, the perception of business executives regarding the generation of employment averaged 5.49 in 2004, while this year expectations are at 5.91.

The data from the Third Trimester Business Poll corresponded to the last three months of 2004 and included responses from 300 businesses.

UCCAEP president Samuel Yankelewitz told the press Costa Rica needs to generate 50,000 jobs annually over the next six years if it wants to cut unemployment in half from the current rate of 6.5%.

“This is what worries us most. Costa Rica has to be aggressive in its attraction of foreign investment and approval of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA)” in order to create new jobs, he explained.

One of the causes of the situation was the fall of the industrial and construction sectors in the last trimester of 2004, which were classified by businesses with scores of 5.48 and 4.51, respectively.

According to UCCAEP, the Costa Rican business sector employs 1.5 million people.

– EFE

British Embassy Collects
Books for Cabécar, Bluefields

The British Embassy in San José is collecting used books in either English or Spanish, of all types and for all ages, to donate to schools and libraries in the Cabécar Indigenous Reserve in the Talamanca region on the southern Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, and the city of Bluefields on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.

This is the latest in a series of projects the embassy has carried out in those regions. British Ambassador to Costa Rica Robert Kelly organized the building of two schools and health clinics on the Cabécar reservation last year.

Yesterday, embassy officials distributed school uniforms, books and school supplies to children in Bribrí, a town in Talamanca populated by many Bribrí indigenous. The children have struggled to return to classes in a region that was devastated by flooding in the first weeks of January.

The supplies were purchased with funds collected from the British community during Burns' Night, a commemoration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns celebrated in the residence of the British Ambassador Jan. 29. The community donated ¢96,000 ($210) to the cause.

The need for books in Bluefields came to the embassy's attention through its work with students there. It is sponsoring a writing project in which high-school students write short stories about their lives, said public affairs officer Bruce Callow.

Books in English are especially useful to residents of Bluefields, where most speak Creole English as their native language. Spanish is also widely used because of the influx of mestizos from the Pacific side of the country.

Those who would like to contribute can contact Callow at the British Embassy by calling 258-2025 or sending an e-mail to Bruce.Callow@fco.gov.uk .