Millicom announced that it exercised its right to terminate the Share Purchase Agreement for the acquisition of Telefonica's operating subsidiary in the Central American country.
In Costa Rica, a law project proposes to disable construction companies that do not comply with contracts with state entities for a period of five years.
The proposed law is analyzed by the Economic Affairs Committee of the Congress, and according to representatives of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), if approved, the law would allow sanctioning construction companies that do not complete the works agreed with the State.
The state run firm Recope has affirmed the need to build a refinery with the Chinese, citing the existence of a contract which is already being run.
Instead of focusing on strategies for renewable energy generation and opening up the energy market in the country, the authorities of the Costa Rican Oil Refinery insist on building an oil refinery, using funds from the Chinese government.
In the waning days of an administration marked by scandals and inefficiencies in infrastructure, the rush to execute contracts is notorious, and there are even extensions being given out without tenders or bids.
Residents of the capital San Jose seem puzzled over how resurfacing works are to be carried out on streets that are apparently in good condition.
The urgency of the outgoing Chinchilla administration to award the much questioned road project to a Chinese company must be analyzed in light of the costly mistakes that have already been made on these issues.
Editorial
An article by Mario Bermudez on Elfinancierocr.com lists some of the very expensive "mistakes" made by the Costa Rican government in relation to public infrastructure, failures that have resulted not only in the country being on the brink of collapse in terms of infrastructure, but have generated direct costs in the form of multiimillion dollar fines, contract settlements, or just in wasted money.
Lack of clear leadership, internal chaos in the main political parties and parliamentary fragmentation are threatening Costa Rica's business climate.
Contradictory statements over the legal certainty of the project for a mega container port in Moin ($1 billion), made by the very probable next president of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, and the founder of his party (Citizen Action) and deputy chief of the legislative group, Otton Solis have generated understandable alarm in the business community.
Judicially enforcing a contract takes 1402 days in Guatemala, 920 in Honduras, 852 in Costa Rica, 786 in El Salvador, 686 in Panama, and 409 in Nicaragua.
The data comes from the 2014 Doing Business report by the World Bank.
The extreme difficulty of enforcing contracts by means of the administration of justice systems is endemic in Latin America, which, as stated an article in Miamiherald.com by Andres Oppenheimer, contributes "to slow economic growth."
New regulations issued by the Economy, Industry and Commerce Ministry (MEIC), will come into effect on April 1st, 2010.
These oversee any contracts in which goods or services are sold using installment plans, for example timeshares or travel clubs.
"When buying a future service, consumers are entitled to know, before signing a contract, if the provider is registered in the Ministry's website", reported Nacion.com.