An international tribunal has ruled in favor of the Costa Rican government in a legal process in which US investors denounced arbitrary actions in the development of a real estate project in Esterillos beach.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Trade:
San Jose.On September 19, 2018, the Government of Costa Rica was notified by the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the decision adopted by the Arbitral Tribunal in the case of David Richard Aven et al.c.Costa Rica (known as "Las Olas").This arbitration was filed by a group of US investors in 2014, under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).
The new Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica is opposed to the Diquís project, which the state electricity company has been promoting for ten years, and which consists of building a hydroelectric generation plant in Puntarenas.
While the new leaders of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced their intention to refloat the project, which due to unconstitutionality appeals filed against it has remained on paper for years, the Ministry of Environment and Energy has declared its opposition, stating that "... there are no studies or other assessments on the social and economic impact that justify the declaration of national convenience given to the project a decade ago."
Through an alliance with the US Geological Survey, the government of Costa Rica will be carrying out an assessment of aquifers nationwide.
The aim of the evaluation is to obtain images of the aquifers to obtain information on the characteristics of the surface, infrastructure, rocks and vegetation.
A business conference for companies working in the timber and related products sector has been organized for November 4, 2016 in Heredia, Costa Rica.
From a statement issued by the National Forestry Office:
As part of the sixth edition of the Vive La Madera Fair and C-Neutralidad 2016, LaOnf, the FONAFIFO and the MINAE will be hosting business negotiations for timber and related products, which will be assisted by PROCOMER.
The Superintendency of Telecommunications has now been given approval to hold the contest of 70 MHz for mobile telephony, which had been on hold since 2011.
Four years after the last allocation of frequencies, the Ministry of Telecommunications has given authorization to proceed with a public auction, in which it is expected that Claro and Telefonica will take part but not the state run power company as it already has a larger number of frequencies than private operators.
A year after the declaration of moratorium and three months after the announcement that the regulation was ready to be signed, the Ministry of Environment has now decided to "clarify some issues."
While huge investments are paralyzed and municipalities are struggling to deal with garbage in the best way possible, the government of Costa Rica continues to delay the adoption of a regulation that would allow energy to be generated from solid waste.
A year into its tenure, the government of Costa Rica has announced the formation of a joint committee to study a national plan for recycling and recovery of waste.
EDITORIAL:
In another grim example of the difficulties faced by rulers in Costa Rica to make executive decisions on public works, existing plans - which are currently on hold, and will probably disappear - for investment in the waste management and recycling sector, including generating power from them, due to the fact that the current government has decided to start from scratch with the formation of a committee to "develop strategies" on the topic. As if there were not already enough information on his issue, and as if the respective participants and those responsible had not expressed themselves sufficiently in this respect. It is the same case with the commission on energy introduced by this government.
The Ministry of Environment in Costa Rica is considering raising the ceiling on the amount of energy private generators are allowed to produce above the current 15%, but these companies are demanding the elimination of the ceiling and free competition.
Private power generation companies are opposed to pricing and limits that are imposed on the participation and sale of power in the country, and consider it a "discriminatory act".
Once again conservationism is at the service of sectoral interests, paralyzing investment in infrastructure which is essential for halting the deteriorating competitiveness of the economy.
EDITORIAL
In Costa Rica an investment of billions of dollars to build a container port has been held up by six years of legal proceedings, and added to this will be a further 5 months due to maneuvers made by uncompromising conservationists in league with unionists.
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.
A group of U.S. investors is suing the state for $70 million alleging violation of DR-CAFTA preventing the development of real estate project Las Olas in Puntarenas.
The lawsuit filed with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by a group of investors led by David Richard Aven notes that "... national authorities treated them unfairly, in relation to a real estate development project in the Esterillos beach area in the Central Pacific. They also claim that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with their country was violated. "
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.
In answering whether Costa Rica should compensate Industrias Infinito in the Crucitas mine case, the minister in charge of the issue said, "they shouldn't be paid or it should be minimal. "
EDITORIAL
In an article in Prensalibre.cr the Minister of Environment and Energy René Castro answered the question by saying "We believe that Costa Rica should not give any compensation to Industrias Infinito because there was never actually a concession."
In Costa Rica the paperwork needed for an industrial company to be able to use its own water well requires activities to be undertaken in three institutions and which take over a year.
The article in Elfinancierocr.com reviews the different steps in the process which involves repeat submissions to the Acueductos y Alcantarillados department (AyA), the Dirección de Aguas del Ministerio de Ambiente (Minae), and the Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas, Riego y Avenamiento (Senara).
A decree under review proposes regulating the maximum amounts of certain substances allowed in gasoline.
The possible entry into force of the decree promoted by the Ministries of Environment and Health, has reactivated a conflict which has been going on for years with gasoline additive distributors.
It has been said that the sector would be harmed with the decree and even lose some of its investments as it trades products that contain these components. At the other extreme are products that do not have any added chemicals which would benefit from the decree, which would actually open up a stronger market in the country for them.
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