China announced yesterday it is writing Costa Rica a check for $20 million, money President Oscar Arias said will go toward flood relief in the regions damaged by last week's heavy rains.
That was only one of several announcements that were the fruit of Arias' long-anticipated trip to visit the Asian giant for the first time since Costa Rica switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in June (TT, June 8).
In addition to the $20 million in cash, China has pledged another $27 million in “technical and economic cooperation that will be assigned to different projects,” according to a release from Casa Presidencial. A spokesman there had no details on what that cooperation might involve.
Also coming out of Arias' visit was the announcement that the two countries had agreed to speed up the process to investigate the possibility of a free-trade agreement.
“Certainly now China is going to show greater interest in Costa Rica than what it showed before establishing diplomatic relations, and certainly Costa Rican businesspeople will want to conquer that import and export market,” the statement quoted Arias as saying. |
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