Expo-Osa 2008
See what the Osa Peninsula has to offer in terms of tourism. 2 p.m., Crowne Corobicí Hotel, across from Más x Menos, La Sabana.

“Mudanzas” Dance Shows
Features “Solo por Placer,” Mudances Company (Spain), 8 p.m., Teatro de la Danza.

Concert by Craig and Jaime
Acoustic guitar music by a Californian and a Floridian that now reside in Grecia, 6 p.m., Navcafé, San Ramón.

President Oscar Arias yesterday signed into law a bill opening the country's 84-year insurance monopoly to private competition.

The new law established guidelines for the regulation of the insurance industry, strengthens the state-owned National Insurance Institute (INS) with the intent of giving it the flexibility to compete with private insurance companies, among other issues.

“As soon as this law is published, the insurance market will be open to competition according to the will of Costa Ricans, legislators and this government,” Arias said. “We have been very clear in saying that certain protections tied us to a past that was very good, but that nonetheless was the past. If INS is to exist and survive, if it is to be stronger and more efficient each day, it must have the tools to do so. This is precisely what this law does.”

Guillermo Constenla, president of INS, said the institution is prepared to compete. “We believe we have the ability to survive and lead in an open market,” Constenla said.

Constela said INS is undergoing an institutional transformation aimed at improving its services and better tailoring them to customers' needs.

Accomplishing this will be no small feat. A recent CID-Gallup poll financed by INS found that just 55 percent of Costa Ricans were satisfied with INS services.

As part of Costa Rica's Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) commitments, legislators on July 1 passed in second and definitive debate a bill ending the insurance monopoly.

However, before private companies can set up shop in the country, the government must establish an independent agency to regulate the insurance market, along the lines of the country's regulatory agencies for financial institutions, securities and pensions.

The National Council for Financial System Supervision (CONASSIF), the Central Bank agency charged with regulating the financial system, will have up to a year and a half to establish what will tentatively be called the Superintendency of Insurance. In the meantime, one of the existing regulatory agencies, most likely the Superintendency of Pension Funds (SUPEN), will regulate the insurance industry, according to Wilberth Quesada, SUPEN's communications director.

For a detailed analysis of what the opening of the insurance monopoly will mean for policy holders and Costa Rica as a whole, read Friday's Tico Times print edition.

Three Costa Rican films have won funding from Ibermedia, a project that aims to bring funding to television and cinematic productions in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, according to the Culture Ministry.

“Costa Rica is very proud of its audiovisual industry,” said culture minister María Elena Carballo. “I feel that we have a confluence of helping factors … creative and talented people, the support of the government and experienced people in the field.”

These films, entitled “Las Niñas” (“The Girls”), “Las Cincuenta Vueltas” (“The Fifty Turns”) and “Del Amor y Otros Demonios” (“Of Love and Other Demons”), are the first three winners from Costa Rica, who entered the program this year.

“Our culture is good business,” Carballo said. “This sector is earning money. This sector is competitive. We are creating a new way for creative people to work with their government.”

They join 16 other member countries but join Panama as the only Central American nations involved in the program.

“Las Niñas,” about the Nicaraguan revolution through the eyes of one family, and “Las Cincuenta Vueltas,” about 50 years of Cuban communism, won $15,000 each for project development.

“Del Amor y Otros Demonios,” a film version of the Gabriel García Márquez novel done with help from Colombia, won $180,000 in the co-production category.

“In each story, there is an important part of our soul and identity,” said Mercedes Ramírez, director of the ministry's Center for Cinematic Production. “We want these projects to have an impact on the economy as well, because we are talking about cultural products.”

Costa Rica hopes to expand its efforts in film, and also to serve as a model of success for Central American countries that have not yet entered into the Ibermedia program.

Costa Rica's trade deficit during the first half of the year reached $2.75 billion, more than twice the $1.35 billion deficit registered during the same period last year, according to the Central Bank.

The widening deficit is the result of imports growing four times faster than exports. During the first half of this year, imports registered a 28 percent increase, while exports grew by only 6 percent.

Imports increased from $6.01 billion during the first half of 2007 to $7.72 during the same period last year. Exports increased from $4.67 billion to $4.97 billion.

The main import categories were raw materials for industry ($3 billion) and fuels ($1 billion). The speed at which imports have increased is attributed to higher international food and oil prices.

The leading exports were Intel microprocessors ($1.06 billion), followed by other free zone exports ($1.04 billion), processed foods ($531 million), bananas ($338 million), pineapples ($304 million), and coffee ($237 million), among others.

Government officials attributed the slow rate of growth in the country's exports to delays in the implementation of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) and the slowdown in that country, which is by far Costa Rica's main export market.

Last year, Costa Rica finished the year with a $3.62 billion trade deficit, which marked an eight percent increase over the $3.35 deficit registered in 2006.