Costa Rica's mobile telephony market won't be open to competition until 2011.
In the past 10 years, Costa Rica has been losing what was a privileged position in telecommunications. Statistics from the International Telecommunications Union show that the country, with 1.800.000 mobile phone subscribers, is ranked 160th in the list of 225 countries.
With 42 mobile phone lines per 100 inhabitants, Costa Rica is way below its Central American neighbors. Panama has 115, El Salvador 113, Guatemala 109, Honduras 85, Nicaragua 55. In the American continent, only Cuba and Haiti fare worse.
Costa Rica-based Grupo Saret aims to become one of the leading players in electricity generation in Central America.
Saret aims to seek a partner with experience in the industry so it can compete with companies such as Enel of Italy and Spain's Unión Fenosa.
Already it has plans to build several plants in southern Costa Rica, as well as in northern Panama and Nicaragua.