Arguing that traditional taxi services and Uber should coexist simultaneously, the government of Costa Rica presented a proposal to regulate the collaborative transport service.
Uber, the computer platform for passenger transportation that has been operating in Costa Rica for more than three years, has faced, as in other markets, the opposition of local taxi drivers, who claim that they compete under unequal conditions.
The plan to build a new international airport in Orotina, which ex-president Solis presented grandiloquently last year, is not a priority for the current Costa Rican government.
A year and a half ago, the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis announced that the international air terminal would open in a first phase in 2027, and the overall cost of the project was estimated at $2 billion.
Three underground railway lines with a large central exchange station is the basic concept for a project valued at $6 billion.
The Costa Rican College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA) started work on this project in 2014 and has now submitted it to the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MOPT), in the form of a pre-feasibility study.
In addition to the bureaucracy delaying the project, there is now also an assessment by the shipping company that will provide the service, in order to find a way to "make it profitable."
The project which was announced with great fanfare by the Solis administration one year ago, has not only failed to advance because of the need to modify the regulations on multimodal transport services, but also because now the Odiel shipping company is looking for customers and evaluating the expected profitability of the business, according to government representatives.
The regulations in force for Central America allow two methods of certifying the weight of cargo moving through ports in the region.
The new regulations in force since July 1 oblige entities transporting containerized cargo by sea tocertify its weight under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas). The problem cited by exporters is the increase this will have on costs, in addition to infrastructure problems faced in some ports in the region.
A year after the announcement, the project to establish a marine cargo ferry between El Salvador and Costa Rica remains on paper.
Although it had been announced that the service would begin in late July 2016, it seems that the idea of a ferry transporting goods between the ports of Costa Rica and El Salvador at a base cost of $800 will not happen, at least for now.
Costa Rica's lack of actions to address the problems of road infrastructure is beginning to take its toll directly, preventing the development of areas with clear productive vocation.
The very success of an area with comparative advantages for operating free zones, call centers and corporate offices, such as those close to Juan Santamaria International Airport, has become a detonator triggering the paralysis suffered by investments in construction of new buildings, simply because of vehicle congestion in Belen, in the Greater Metropolitan area of Costa Rica, is so bad that it is normal to take up to 50 minutes to travel 4 kilometers from the area in question to the access road to the center of the capital.
Through a public-private partnership scheme the government is looking for land and a private developer to build a bus terminal for routes from Cartago to Curridabat.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport:
The Minister of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), through its Public Transport Council (CTP), signed on Thursday, with the Municipalities of Curridabat and Cartago, a framework cooperation agreement to improve access to public transport.
After overcoming several bureaucratic obstacles the grain terminal with capacity to accommodate PostPanamax vessels became operational in the Pacific port of Costa Rica.
From a statement issued by from the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT):
The new multipurpose dock at Caldera Port, has now been inaugurated, improving Costa Rica's competitiveness and international trade logistics, in addition to promoting development in the province of Puntarenas.
The governments of both countries signed an Open Skies agreement which allows designated airlines to fly between the two countries.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport:
The Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Carlos Segnini and his counterpart from Singapore, Lui Tuck Yew, signed a memorandum of understanding which will allow for, in the short term, a formal open skies agreement between the two countries.
The Costa Rican Institute of Railways has announced that it is analyzing the purchase of machinery from abroad in order to set up an electric railway system in the capital.
Although an amount for investment in the purchase of electric trains has not yet been established, nor are there any feasibility studies to justify it, the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (Incofer) is looking for offers from abroad, especially in Europe and China.
An announcement has been made to implement an electronic payment system on buses circulating in the capital.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), the Regulatory Authority for Public Services (ARESEP) and the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) signed an agreement for the implementation of an electronic payment system on buses circulating the capital.
At a cost of $1 million the project to build an airport in Southern Costa Rica is close to obtaining environmental certification.
The study is nearing completion and has a budget of $998,000, explained Ana Cristina Jenkins, Deputy Minister of Air and Maritime Transport at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT).
"This year in 2014, we are about to start the socioeconomic study, with a $350,000 investment and we are ready to start it in February. The total period is 6 months."
The Spanish company FCC won the $34 million contract to build a 10,000 m² hangar for aircraft maintenance.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) made the award for the new hangar where the cooperative in charge of repairing and maintaining aircraft will be relocated to. The new structure will be located 150 meters from the runway of the Juan Santa Maria airport and will be ready in 18 months.
Progress is being made on an agreement for freedoms of the air to boost tourism between the two countries by increasing air links.
A Costa Rican delegation composed of the chief of Tourism, Allan Flores and Ana Cristina Jenkins, Deputy Minister of Transport is currently visiting the Asian nation negotiating the agreement.
"There has been a lot of hard work done between the aviations bodies of each country, we have had discussions with airlines to stimulate interested in the route and in April a delegation of Costa Rica tourism entrepreneurs was in China," said Costa Rica's ambassador in Beijing, Marco Vinicio Ruiz.