The Special Commission on Infrastructure of the Costa Rican Assembly endorsed the bill that seeks to regulate the schemes for the development of public-private partnership projects.
The initiative, which has yet to go beyond the debate in the Legislative Plenary, establishes the processes and modalities for promoting private investment for the development of public infrastructure, public services and services related to these, applied research projects and/or technological innovation.
In Costa Rica, authorities announced that work to widen a 46-kilometer stretch connecting the bridge over the Virilla River to the Sucio River, valued at $643 million and to be paid for with tolls over 30 years, is close to being approved.
The government and the concessionaire Globalvia signed a letter of understanding for the negotiation process of the studies for the expansion of the road from San Jose to Caldera.
It is estimated that the work will cost about $600 million, a cost that would imply an extension of the concession contract for another 15 years, starting from the expiration of the current concession.
In El Salvador, the contract for the financing, design, construction and operation of the San Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport Cargo Terminal is tendered under the Public-Private Partnership format.
The project contemplates two phases of development: Phase 1 consists of financing, design, expansion, construction, equipment, improvement of maintenance and operation of the existing Cargo Terminal.
Arguing that a complete report on the financial situation of the companies owning the development was not presented, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute decided to cancel the concession of the Monte del Barco project, in the Papagayo Tourist Pole.
Aldesa Fondos de Inversión reported that Inversiones Monte del Barco S.A. and Inversiones GODA S.A., companies owning the tourism development, were notified last July 4th, but the concessionary companies will proceed to file in time and form, the appeal for replacement or revocation before the Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.
Because of the delay of the Costa Rican authorities to solve the problem of water supply in the Gulf of Papagayo, developers request that the terms of the concessions granted to them to develop tourism projects in the area be extended.
The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) has already received requests for concessions to be extended, because some of the projects that have not been completed have already consumed half of the time they were granted.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica are the countries in the region with the best conditions to develop Public-Private Partnerships, followed by Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The 2019 Infrascope index, which evaluates 23 indicators and 78 qualitative and quantitative sub-indicators in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Latin America, is prepared by The Economist Intelligence Unit and has the financial backing of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
In Costa Rica, discussions have continued to plan the expansion of the route from San José to Caldera, and it is estimated that the works will require about $600 million in investment.
The 77-kilometer road has been operated by Globalvia since its opening, and according to the authorities' forecasts, if the project were to be executed, work would begin in 2021, which would have a five-year duration divided into different phases.
In Costa Rica, the H. Solís-TPF Ingeniería consortium proposes to extend a 46-kilometer stretch that connects the bridge over the Virilla River with the Sucio River, a work valued at $643 million and to be paid with tolls for 30 years.
The proposal for the extension of the road section that was presented to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) by the business consortium is still in the analysis phase.
In Costa Rica a private consortium has proposed investing $50 million in the modernization of the port of Quepos, to transform it into a terminal with capacity to receive large cruise ships.
Authorities at the Costa Rican Institute of Ports of the Pacific (Incop) reported that the offer by the Costa Rican consortium CEPP Consultants LLC, which was put forward last Tuesday and will be analyzed starting from next week, and relates to a project be developed through the granting of a concession.
A tender has been launched in Costa Rica of the use and operation of 70 MHz of radio spectrum to be used to deploy international mobile technology.
Costa RicaGovernment Purchase 2016LI-000002-SUTEL:
"Through means of this public tender, concessionswill be granted, through an auction process, for up to seven (7) blocks of 5 MHz (2x5 MHz) with coverage throughout the territory of the Republic of Costa Rica, as described:
As the country suffers from a serious crisis of inability to develop public works, one Costa Rican company is helping build the Panama Canal and highways and another infrastructure works in other countries.
EDITORIAL
Costa Ricans do not lack capacity to design and implement large infrastructure projects.One example that confirms this is the participation of MECO in building the third set of locks of the Panama Canal and major roadworks in Colombia.
The global relevance of companies seeking the award of a third port for container ships in the Pacific is a clear sign of the importance of Panama as maritime and logistics hub.
The companies pre-qualified to participate in the tender for the concession of a new port in Corozal are subsidiaries of the largest shipping companies such as Maersk-Denmark, MSC-Italy and CMA-CGM-France or are direct port operators, in this case the most important in the world, PSA from Singapore.
In Costa Rica growth in the port's productivity since it was granted in concession to private companies is in sharp contrast to the general stagnation of state-owned enterprises.
From 2013 to 2015, average productivity of ships in Caldera grew by 53.8%, while waiting times were reduced by 87% (gong from 160 hours to 20 hours) for bulk carriers and 50% (from 26 to 13 hours) for containerships.
In the concession model proposed by the government, one operator can be the virtual operator of a logical channel, management-multiplex concessionaire and / or network administrator at the same time.
The Vice Ministry of Telecommunications has presented its proposal for a reference model for the transition to digital television, in which it details the concession model and partnership opportunities between concessionaires, details of the use of the radio spectrum, aspects related to digital solidarity, deployment of DTT and the expected results of this technological change under the ISDB-Tb standard.
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