The absence of a long-term waste management policy is preventing the ability to take advantage of a sector which could generate significant business opportunities.
An Editorial on Nacion.com notes that "...The reasons for this lethargy, in the face of a problem that is about to overwhelm us and could be an important source of income, range from financing to lack of technological alternatives.
There are concerns related to lack of definition in key areas and the Solis administration's true implementation capacity is being questioned.
The guild of private companies has also criticized the fact that they were not included in the development of the employment strategy to be presented in the next few days by President Solis.
For example, on the subject of electricity tariffs, Mario Montero, vice president of the Costa Rican Chamber of the Food Industry (Cacia), told Crhoy.com that "... 'there are now too many diagnoses and there are issues where political calculations should be left out of the picture, and the industry wants to participate in working groups' ... 'inaction is choking us and postponing decisions for 18 or 24 months is not acceptable.' "
While renegotiations are carried out on a loan to build an oil refinery, President Solis has issued a decree extending the moratorium on oil exploration and production until 2021.
While the private sector mourns the loss of competitiveness caused by the high cost of electricity and the lack of proposals to solve the power supply problem affecting the country, the government has decided to extend for six years a ban on all types of oil industry in the country, citing lack of information on the effects of the activity on the environment.
The extension of the road to Limon and the construction of a refinery in Moin, both to be funded by the Chinese government, will be renegotiated by the Solis administration.
Two major projects in infrastructure which began under the Chinchilla administration are now being analyzed by the government of Solis, due to the criticism against the conditions imposed by the Chinese government for the provision of the $395 million for the expansion of the road from San Jose to Limon.
The accreted political left in Costa Rica is proposing that the oil bill that is being run up now, be paid for in the future by other generations.
EDITORIAL
Proposed by a legislative faction of the Frente Amplio party, the possible accession of Costa Rica to the oil alliance created by Venezuela, will not lower fuel prices automatically, but because of how the agreement works, it will mean financing oil purchases at rates that are just a little better than the current cost, simply to keep on increasing government debt, not to mention the political implications that could come from such a close relationship with the government of Venezuela.
The state run electricity company intends to archive projects in the energy reform sector, while the commission presided over by president Solis is going to take 18 months, just to discuss the country's energy matrix.
After the Solis government having announced the creation of a commission that will take a year and a half just to diagnose the problems of the energy sector in the country, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad has made a request for three projects on law reforms being studied in the Legislature, to be archived while the commission seeks these solutions.
The movement could respond to the lower volatility of the exchange rate seen from the beggining of administration of Luis Guillermo Solis on May 1st this year.
The margin between buying and selling dollars at the counters of financial institutions has declined from 13 to 10 colones colones in the last eight days, after several weeks of constant central bank interventions in the wholesale forex market, movements which the market interpreted as efforts to stabilize the price of the dollar against the colon and prevent it rising beyond what is deemed appropriate by the authorities at the Central Bank.
Making it clear that their international trade policies will be more protectionist than those of previous governments, the Solis administration has poured cold water on the accession to the group formed by Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile.
Editorial
This theme marks the differences within the government of President Luis Guillermo Solis. While the Minister of Foreign Trade (COMEX) Alexander Mora would be inclined to maintain the openness to the world that has characterized Costa Rica in recent years, Luis Felipe Arauz, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), publicly expressed opposition to entering the block of nations under the current conditions.
While on his U.S. tour the new president Solis is looking to dispel uncertainties about the economic direction of the country and the treatment to be given to foreign investment.
An article on Estrategiaynegocios.net reports that President Luis Guillermo Solis said "... I would like to bring the message that Costa Rica remains a reliable destination for foreign investment despite recent investment losses by Intel and Bank of America."
Importers are complaining that the "Regístrelo" (RegisterIt) digital system is malfunctioning, and that it is not possible to carry out the steps manually, generating delays of up to five months in these processes.
Although the official announcement of the implementation of the new platform emphasized that one of the benefits was the reduction of timeframes, the import sector is criticizing delays of up to five months in processing health records granted by the Ministry of Health. Added to this is the fact that the system was made obligatory, there was not a period for improvements and now there are no other official instruments to use to register products.
The Santa Fe Bridge, built in Nicaragua over the San Juan River, 5 kilometers from the border with Costa Rica, will not be opened as long as the confrontation between the two governments continues.
362 meters long and 40 meters high, the Santa Fe Bridge required a $30 million investment donated by the Government of Japan.
At the same time as constructing the bridge, Nicaragua also built a road along the south coast of the river ending up on the border with Costa Rica, which will facilitate exports from the central region travelling to Puerto Limon in Costa Rica and also help the flow of Nicaraguans entering and exiting the border with their southern neighbor.
Rulers should be aware that a very large percentage of their people do not satisfy their hunger eating sovereignty but by eating rice and beans.
It seems that the current interest of the elected president of Costa Rica is to maintain the highest possible tension with Nicaragua.
Editorial
Undoubtedly, any gesture of rapprochement with the government of President Ortega will entail political costs for Luis Guillermo Solís, the next president of Costa Rica. But it is clear that this - the beginning of his term - was the best time to make that gesture, promoting a release of tension over the border dispute in the Caribbean area.
The president-elect has announced that it is a priority of his government to overhaul the country's road infrastructure, which will require investments of over $10 billion.
Costa Rica has a back log of 20 years worth of work in implementing the necessary road infrastructure to support the country's development.
With a geography that requires a lot of bridges, there are far fewer than necessary, and those few bridges that do exist are old and too narrow and have not been maintained. The highways are not able to deal with the rapid growth in the number of cars on the road and do not meet the needs of productive sectors, causing loss of competitiveness with the region and the world. Urban transport in the metropolitan area around the capital San José is terrible, requiring urgent solutions in terms of public transport.
Fitch Ratings is warning that political fragmentation faced by the new government makes correcting the fiscal problem affecting the country very difficult.
The rating agency also highlighted as an issue the fact that "it is not yet fully clear how President-elect Solis will address the fiscal problem."
"The fiscal deterioration involves challenges in stabilizing the budgetary burden and the ability of authorities to respond to external shocks that may come in the future, which could erode the business climate and consumer confidence."
The current conditions in the money market are different from those in 2013 and raising government funds abroad is no longer the best option.
The reality is that the incoming administration of Luis Guillermo Solís is stuck between a rock and a hard place, not only because the cost of financing abroad has dramatically increased, but because raising money in the local market could bring negative consequences for inflation and the exchange rate.