Costa Rica

Wind Power Generation in Costa Rica



The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said it will begin to exploit wind power by December 2008 with the handing out of a contract to a Costa Rican - German consortium to harness some 50 megawatts of power.

The contract was awarded to the Grupo Corporativo Saret and Enerwinds de Costa Rica and the German company Jiwi.

The consortium has until December 2009 to have its plant in operation, ICE said it plans to inaugurate the opening the plant by December 2008, giving the group a year to be fully operational, which is expected to make up the missing energy power that the country needs during the summer months.

Once the Guanacaste plant is operations, the country will be producing 74 Megawatts of power produced by wind.

The cost of the project is us$63 million dollars that will see the installation of 55 wind generators located on 400 hectares of land located in Guayabo de Bagaces.

According to Enrique Morales, manager for the project, the windmills will be produced in Germany and the first 28 will be in Costa Rican by June 2008.

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posted by Costa Rica real estate @ 10:05 AM    

Costa Rica Weddings



If you are thinking about planning a wedding in Costa Rica, there are some things you should know. I am from the States and my husband is from Costa Rica. We are having a wedding in Tamarindo Beach at the Diria in January so I know have a lot of experience with the wedding planning here in the country.

I want to give you some tips if you are considering having a wedding in Costa Rica.

1. It takes a long time to receive your marriage certificate. I actually had my civil ceremony 8 months ago, because this makes the process smoother. We got married 8 months ago because we knew it would be a slow process and there is no way I wanted to be planning the wedding for an entire year and then waiting, waiting, and waiting for the certificate after the wedding. With the slow legal processes here in Costa Rica, it took 5 months to get our wedding papers back. Not only do you have to wait to get your certificate back from Costa Rica in Spanish, but then it needs to be translated by an official translator in English, and then you need to take it back to the States and have it filed in your county.

2. Weddings here are not cheap. After seeing my brother spend $15,000 on his wedding in the States last year, for nothing luxury, I was excited to save a few dollars here! Now that I am actually having to pay for things, I’m realizing we are not saving much other than having fewer guests because of the distance and commitment it takes to travel. Our wedding for 80 guests is costing about $8,000. When I compare that to my brother’s wedding, he had 250 guests for $15,000. He almost got the better deal! I feel like I am getting some deals on flower arrangements and set up costs, and the food and open bar is outrageous! Even the all-inclusive hotels in Costa Rica charge $40/person for a private dinner for your guests when everyone should be eating for free!!

3. Loss of control over details. Even though I am living here, it is hard to plan a wedding in a foreign country. Most things are up to the events planners at the hotel because they are the ones with the contacts and control. You just need to hope that they are listening and taking note of what you want and that it turns out right. Because it is not easy trying to book your own details in Spanish and doing it the Tico way. I would say, to have a wedding here you need to be open to the details and and not worry if things don’t turn out your way.

4. No one will have a more beautiful wedding than you! Here is the most positive point, the country is beautiful. Can you imagine having the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers, chairs set up with white covers and bows, in a lush garden overlooking the ocean. Your guests are not only going to the most beautiful wedding, but you are giving the ones who could make it an entire life experience and something they will never forget!

5. Only get married here if you are willing to give up on the details and looking for an incredible experience. And do the legal stuff before you come and have a symbolic ceremony on the beach!

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posted by Costa Rica real estate @ 10:02 AM    

Sun to move local jobs to Costa Rica



The Baltimore Sun plans to outsource about a dozen jobs in its finance department to Costa Rica and India, as well as Tribune’s Chicago headquarters, by next spring.

A total of 14 positions will be eliminated, said The Sun’s vice president of marketing, Tim Thomas. However, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild put the number of jobs at 11, guild president and Sun reporter Bill Salganik said.

The move would affect the advertising credit and collections section of the department, and it would take place next spring, Thomas said. The company would move a number of jobs to Tribune’s finance service center in Chicago, while others would be contracted to Hewlett-Packard facilities in Costa Rica and India, he said.

Details, including exactly which jobs would be eliminated, are not yet clear, but Salganik said the losses would comprise most of the department. The guild plans to meet with The Sun about the situation, Salganik said, but a date for that meeting has not been set.
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Salganik and Thomas both said they expected options for those employees to stay with The Sun, or possibly accept a buyout.

“Under our contract, people can’t be laid off because of outsourcing,” Salganik said. “So they might be offered buyouts, might be retrained or moved elsewhere.”

Salganik said employees were informed of the move in a Wednesday letter, which did not give a specific reason for the decision. Thomas called the move “an effort to improve service to advertisers and reduce costs.” The Tribune Co. is in the midst of a private buyout, and Salganik said he was not aware of any further impending job cuts.

Last year, Tribune announced plans to eliminate 250 jobs at circulation call centers company-wide and to outsource the operation to the Philippines.

While newsroom buyouts and job eliminations have been studied by industry experts, the effect of those same trends on the business side of news organizations is less clear, said Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

“The kind of impact buyouts and reallocation will have on the business side, that’s something we’ll have to look at closer,” she said. “There is a question about your ad people knowing the product that they’re representing and selling.”

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posted by Costa Rica real estate @ 9:37 AM    

Chinese Embassy in Costa Rica



A three-story building located in Rohrmoser, west of San José, became the launching pad that the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

The office will be used for the development of Beijing’s optimistic outlook at the new diplomatic ties with Costa Rica and an improved approach to the other Central American nations.

Among the first issues, China has pledged economic aid, technical cooperation, backing in foreign policies, and a free trade agreement, whose feasibility is to be analyzed.

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posted by Costa Rica real estate @ 10:02 AM    

license fee for sportsbooks in Costa Rica is back on legislative table



The Partido Acción Ciudadana has introduced a bill to tax sportsbooks and other electronic betting operations.

The new proposal, No. 16.450, carries a heavier tax burden for betting operations than does the stalled administration tax plan.

This is the latest in a long line of proposals to tax the betting industry which provides a lot of work for young English-speaking residents.

The Acción Ciudadana proposal would also tax betting operations based on the number of employees on their payroll. Up to 20 employees the annual tax would be 15 million colons, about $28,000. At the top of the scale operations with 61 or more employees would pay 28.4 million colons or about $54,600.

The tax is being characterized as a license fee.

Taxing sportsbooks is an easy idea to propose but the politics of passage are complex. In October 2002 sportsbook employees protested for two days outside the Asamblea Legislativa in opposition to a similar tax contained in the proposed fiscal reform package promoted by then-president Abel Pacheco.

The entire plan died in the legislature, effectively blocked by the Movimiento Libertario which has championed the cause of the sportsbooks.

Since then the sportsbook industry has taken a few hits. One major betting operation, BetonSports, stopped taking U.S. bets because its executives were indicted in the United States. The firm is trying to distribute funds to creditors and employees, according to its Web site.

A large part of the day-to-day operations of Bodog.com has been transferred to a new Web site because owner Calvin Ayre, said he is having problems with the domain ownership. He appears to have returned to Antigua and just announced an agreement with Morris Mohawk Gaming Group in Canada to operate his gambling sites. His operation no longer employees many Costa Ricans.

The Arias administration package of new taxes also includes a licensing scheme for sportsbooks. Online casinos and sportsbooks first must register with the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Comercio. Unregistered companies would be illegal here. The Arias proposal begins at firms with 10 employees and specifies a fee of 10 million colons ($19,200) a year. Firms with 61 or more employees would pay 24 million colons, about $46,100. So the Acción Ciudadana proposal is about 18.5 percent higher.

Passing a law and actually collecting the taxes are two different challenges. The sportsbook industry employes North Americans who work there illegally and do not even benefit from social security payments on their salaries.

And sportsbook executives have said in the past that to move the operation to a more favorable country would not be difficult.

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posted by Costa Rica real estate @ 9:59 AM