Does Costa Rica Really Want a New Port?

There are so many obstacles faced by the project being run by Dutch APM Terminals that it begs the question as to whether the Costa Rican government really wants it to happen.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Since it was awarded construction of the New Mega Port for specialized container ships in Moin, the Dutch company APM Terminals has faced dozens of lawsuits and other legal measures in the courts, which has maintained continuous doubts about the realization of the project.

A large part of the delay is the lengthiness of the procedures for obtaining the required environmental permits. The inability of the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (Setena) to resolve the permissions it has been asked to grant in a normal timeframe seems to be quietly accepted by the government of Costa Rica, which does little or nothing to encourage agility in this department through which all productive projects established in the country must pass through.

Now, the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (Setena) has granted a period of up to six months for APM Terminals to deliver an annex to the EIA, with clarifications and other requirements needed to provide further environmental sustainability to the TCM.

"... One of the issues that is pending is an appeal filed by the Union of Workers of Japdeva (Sintrajap) on the concession contract awarded for a period of 33 years from the date of start of construction."

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More on this topic

Development is Hostage to Minority Interests

May 2014

In Costa Rica extreme environmentalism and the interests of the port unions are crippling a proposed $1 billion logistics development which is vital for the country

For the second time this year an appeal has been filed to obstruct the development of the port terminal by APM Terminals. Now it is the Constitutional Court that is hosting yet another appeal against the construction of the access road to the project.

Dutch Consortium to Build Moin Terminal

October 2013

With an investment of $460 million, the Van Oord-BAM consortium will be responsible for the construction of the container terminal in Limon, Costa Rica.

In a press release, APM Terminals, the global concessionaire of the project, reported that the new terminal will handle 80% of maritime trade in Costa Rica, and will generate 400 new direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs.

Bureaucracy Halts $1 Billion in Investment

July 2013

The Costa Rican environmental authority has only 5 technicians to analyze the feasibility of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects.

Construction of the new container terminal at the Port of Moin can not begin because the environmental feasibility study has not been approved, because it has been delayed due to lack of staff in the Environmental Technical Secretariat (SETENA).

Contract Signed for New Port in Moin

August 2011

After an arduous process, the government of Costa Rica has signed a concessionary award to Dutch run APM Terminals for the construction of the port and its management for a period of 30 years.

APM Terminal's investment will be $950 million, and they will have a period of 3 years to build a container port in Moin on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, north of the existing port facilities.

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