All Entries in the "Asamblea Legislativa - Costa Rica Legislature" Category

Analysis of the Newly Opened Costa Rica Insurance Market

Costa Rica President Óscar Arias Sánchez signed into law Costa Rica’s new insurance reform ending the Instituto Nacional de Seguros’ (INS) eighty-year-old monopoly over the country’s insurance industry.

Can the INS compete in an open market with other private insurers on price, product diversity and service?

Internet and e-Commerce Industries Booming in Costa Rica

Central American countries, like Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, are all experiencing a considerable scale of development in their telecommunication sectors.

However, Costa Rica has managed to reach a high level of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and operation advancements due to its economic policies.

Is Costa Rica a Third World, Second World or Developed Country?

There is a multi-million-dollar mega-mall in Escazú, west of San José, which sports outlets of some of the world’s most exclusive stores. But, according to the State of the Nation report in November, at least 16,000 Costa Rican homes are “without basic services,” such as electricity and running water.

A constant feature of this disparity in the makeup of Costa Rica is that, while certain areas of the country are surging ahead, there are many areas in which the country is not keeping up or is, indeed, falling behind.

Costa Rica’s New Traffic Laws Take Effect March 1, 2010

Costa Rica’s new and sweeping traffic reform laws (reformas a Ley de Tránsito) will finally be the law of the land on March 1st, 2010.

The cornerstone of the new reform is the computerization of drivers’ license records, and the use of a strict points system to force drivers to re-evaluate and change their driving practices.

Costa Rica’s New Immigration Law Takes Effect March 1, 2010

Costa Rica’s new immigration law (nueva ley migratoria) was published in the official government publication La Gaceta on September 1, 2009 … meaning the new “Ley General de Migración y Extranjería” will be the Costa Rica immigration law of the land starting March 1, 2010.
Costa Rica is a world-wide destination for vacationers, travelers, those seeking [...]

Why and How To Do Business in Costa Rica

Investments in education and development make this Central American nation a hotspot for high-tech companies and suppliers.
Costa Rica’s vote and approval of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) put the nation of 4 million people in the spotlight as a potential trade partner for U.S. firms. But savvy global companies—and even savvier buyers—have considered [...]

Costa Rica’s “La Gloria” Guanacaste Wind Farm Now Online

Costa Rica in its quest to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth has reached new heights toward its goal with the completion of the Proyecto Eólico Guanacaste or “La Gloria” electric generating wind farm.
55 wind turbines located at a spectacular site near the Miravalle Volcano (Volcán Miravalle) in Cordillera de Guanacaste, in close [...]

Costa Rica Gambling; In-Country or Online [but not at the same time]

Casino gambling in Costa Rica has been around for decades, for the most part doing business as they wish with few enforced regulations.

Today, there are more than 30 large casinos and well over 100 online casino, poker, sports book and bingo websites operating out of Costa Rica – available to gamblers worldwide.

The Agenda and Challenges of Costa Rica’s New President

Costa Rica’s first woman head of state, president-elect Laura Chinchilla, must now get to work.
For decades Costa Rica has been an oasis of stability in the troubled Central American isthmus. It is the only Latin American country to figure on a list of the world’s 22 “older democracies” compiled by Robert Dahl, an eminent political [...]

North Dakota Tourists Narrowly Escape Costa Rica Bridge Fireball

Costa Rica and Potholes
Costa Rica is as famous for its monkeys, beaches, volcanoes and hot springs as it is for its “potholes”.
Normal driving in Costa Rica includes cars and trucks weaving along narrow roadways, often times crossing into oncoming lanes of traffic, in attempts at avoiding potholes – or at least just trying to choose [...]

Heredia Hospital, Costa Rica’s Newest Modern Public Medical Facility

A new landmark for residents and visitors to Heredia sits in the sun on 11 hectares (27 acres) only 400 meters south of the 117-year-old obsolete Hospital San Vicente de Paúl that has long outlived its usefulness.
The new Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) public Hospital de Heredia San Vicente de Paúl is a gleaming [...]

Costa Rica’s San José to Caldera Pacific Highway now Open

The Costa Rica government officially opened the new Autopistas del Sol San José to Caldera Pacific highway on January 28th, 2010 … 3 months ahead of schedule; but only after 30+ years of planning, stops, starts, controversy and perseverance.
Posted speed limits on the new autopista range from 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per [...]

Costa Rica Remains an Environmental Index Leader as U.S. Falls

A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st.
In the 2008 version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by a consortium between Yale University and Columbia University researchers; Costa [...]

A Night at the Del Rey – Costa Rica’s Most inFamous Hotel

It’s not nearly as famous as Amsterdam in this regard, but prostitution is legal in Costa Rica and the country has become quite a big destination for sex tourism – despite the Costa Rica government’s own efforts to discourage its promotion and growth.
Michael Paladin is an expat living in Central America who for the benefit [...]

One Third of Costa Rican Children Live in Poverty

Children represent 32% of the poor in Costa Rica; limited opportunities for single mothers among causes.
One third of Costa Rican children under age 12, almost 300,000 in all, live in poverty according to government figures published January 25, 2010 by the local press in the Costa Rica, San José capital.
Statistics from the “State of the [...]

Last-Ditch Leftwing Alliance to ‘Save’ Costa Rica from a Conservative Presidency

Political forces on the left in Costa Rica have formed a partial last-minute alliance to support Ottón Solís, the presidential candidate for the center-left Citizen’s Action Party (PAC, Partido Acción Ciudadana), in a bid to counter the conservative lead that the polls predict for the upcoming Feb. 7, 2010 national presidential election.
The governing National Liberation [...]

A Tale of Three Different Caribbean Countries

One of the happiest countries on the planet shows that protecting biodiversity has a lot to do with wellbeing
HAPPINESS IS a state of mind, but if it were a place, it might well be the central American republic of Costa Rica. Located just a few hundred miles west of the benighted Haiti, Costa Rica is [...]

Thriving Sex Industry Bumps Costa Rica from List of Most Ethical Destinations

When travel magazines and sites come out with top ten “eco” lists they’re usually the top ten places who did a good job marketing themselves as green. Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. They are usually places that are actually doing things responsibly because no editor wants to get a stack of hate mail or a [...]

Break Me Off A Piece Of Costa Rica

Nicholas Kristof has a happy-go-lucky column yesterday in the New York Times about Costa Rica that reads as part tourism advertisement, part political common sense.
He goes on and on about how the country is consistently ranked high in “happiness” surveys. This is true. How, then, did they get that way?

What sets Costa Rica apart [...]

The Costa Rica Health Care System, Medical Vacations and What The U.S. Can Learn

Statistics from the World Health Organization place Costa Rica third in life expectancy, sandwiched neatly behind Japan and France and ahead of Great Britain and the United States; and with a per capita income about one tenth of the other four.
Some will [...]