Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, September 22, 2005
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Exports Have Grown
Nine Percent This Year
Exports have grown nearly nine percent so far this year, topping $4.58 billion – compared to $4.21 billion during the same period last year. The growth comes in spite of what Foreign Trade Minister Manuel González called a “complicated” period, “mostly because of rising oil prices.”
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Five More Months House Arrest
For Ex-President Calderón
Former President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-1994) will remain under house arrest for five more months, awaiting trial on corruption charges, the Judicial Branch announced yesterday. His preventive term would have expired today.
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Education Will Combat Slums,
Housing Minister Says
Costa Rican Urban Housing Minister Angelo Altamura said yesterday that in order to resolve the pressing issue of shantytowns and precarious living conditions in Latin America it is necessary to “educate families” and not allow for the subletting of these homes and the return of residents to dangerous conditions.
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September 22
Book Presentations at Librería Internacional
“Decoration,” by Lusmila Kikish, 6 p.m., Av. Ctrl., 800-542-7374
Photography Talk
“Photography Ethics in the Digital Era,” at Veritas University, 283-4747.
Dance Show
“Hoy No Es un Buen Día Para Ir al Cielo” (Today Is Not a Good Day to Go To Heaven): Dance show by the National Dance Company, today through Sept. 24, Teatro de la Danza, CENAC, 256-4838, 223-6128.
Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Exports Have Grown
Nine Percent This Year
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Exports have grown nearly nine percent so far this year, topping $4.58 billion – compared to $4.21 billion during the same period last year. The growth comes in spite of what Foreign Trade Minister Manuel González called a “complicated” period, “mostly because of rising oil prices.”
The most important growth has occurred outside of tax-free incentive zones among food products such as fruit paste and concentrates and sauces, as well as among agricultural products such as pineapple and coffee. The non-incentive sector grew by $200 million.
Bananas exports have continued to decline, dropping by 15%, but are still the biggest agricultural export. González blamed the weather – the year began with plantation-leveling floods in the Caribbean.
Pineapple exports grew by 34% and coffee by nearly 20%, in spite of a drop in international coffee prices. González said the international reputation of Costa Rican coffee kept it afloat.
Exports of electric components for microprocessors rose by 20%.
The United States remains the biggest export market at 41.5% of all exports, up 1.5% from last year.
Costa Rica expanded in some nascent markets, especially Russia, which received the highest percent increase in exports this year with 313%, but is still comparatively small.
“Russia has grown the most, but there is important work to do,” González said. “It's a very big market and it's surprising that in such a big market we are exporting so little.”
Exports to Germany, which buys mostly bananas from Costa Rica, dropped 16%.
Asian markets are expanding considerably. With a decline in U.S. exports to Hong Kong and China, Costa Rica has begun selling more microprocessors to those countries.
Other emerging markets are Taiwan, which mostly buys scrap metal, Israel, which buys integrated circuits and radio and T.V. parts, and China, which buys circuits and speakers.
“The goal was to finish the year with eight percent growth and I think we are on the right path,” González said.
Five More Months House Arrest
For Ex-President Calderón
Former President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-1994) will remain under house arrest for five more months, awaiting trial on corruption charges, the Judicial Branch announced yesterday. His preventive term would have expired today.
Calderón, 55, is accused of masterminding the distribution of a $9.2 million “commission” on a medical equipment purchase by the Social Security System (Caja).
He was arrested in October 2004 (TT, Oct. 22, 2004) and since then has served a series of preventive detention orders – both in his home in the western San José suburb of Curridabat, and in the penitentiary La Reforma.
Fellow ex-President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) was also arrested in October 2004 in connection with a separate corruption case. He remains under house arrest as well.
Under the terms of their detention, neither former head of state is allowed to leave the country or communicate with other suspects in their cases. Only doctors, lawyers, family members or other visitors approved by a judge can visit their homes.
Education Will Combat Slums,
Housing Minister Says
Guadalupe, Spain (EFE) – Costa Rican Urban Housing Minister Angelo Altamura said yesterday that in order to resolve the pressing issue of shantytowns and precarious living conditions in Latin America it is necessary to “educate families” and not allow for the subletting of these homes and the return of residents to dangerous conditions.
Altamura made the declaration at a meeting of the 14 th Assembly of Ministers and Authorities of Urban Housing in Latin America and the Caribbean (MINURVI) in anticipation of the next summit of heads of state and government that will be held in Salamanca, Spain, next month.
Altamura believes that the government must not simply “make houses to make houses,” but concentrate on creating jobs for the people who live in extreme conditions of poverty.
He also indicated that it could be necessary to maintain the poverty-stricken population in spread-out rural areas in order to avoid the proliferation of poverty rings around urban areas, and underlined that achieving this goal “will come from the hand of the employee.”
Costa Rica, which holds the seat of president pro temp of the MINURVI, has been inspired by the Chilean experience in this area, according to Altamura.
The minister indicated that the most pressing challenge confronting his country in terms of housing is financing, especially when applied to families immersed in extreme poverty.
Costa Rica has earmarked $70 million for financing and apportioned $8,000 to each family determined to be in a situation of extreme poverty so that they can arrange for appropriate housing.
Nevertheless, the country currently lacks about 160,000 homes, according to Altamura, and has a continuing challenge in the form of immigrants who arrive each year and also “have a right to housing.”
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