COSTA RICA
Costa Rica to Open a Trade Office in China
Costa Rica will open a trade office in China this coming September to foster exports to that country and attract investments, said the Foreign Trade Corporation of Costa Rica (Procomer). Martín Zúñiga, General Manager of Procomer, explained that the office will complement the Embassy that CR will establish in that country. According to Zúñiga, Costa Rica’s efforts will initially focus on entering three major cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai and Wan Zhong, which offer the greatest opportunities in the short term for local items.
These cities represent a 300-million inhabitant higher-income market, mainly net importers, and more specifically of food products. Procomer considers that the Costa Rican products with a greater chance of penetrating that market are agri-food exports. The other major area of interest for the authorities is to attract investments in industry, tourism and infrastructure. China is Costa Rica’s number two trading partner, with exports close to US$1.0 billion per year and imports worth US$600 million.
EL SALVADOR
El Salvador Improves its Economic Freedom Index
El Salvador climbed to position 29 in the 2007 Economic Freedom Index developed by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. It increased five points over the previous year, when it ended in position 34. Since it first appeared in 1995, the Economic Freedom Index has been measuring the performance of 161 countries in 10 areas: business, free trade, taxing, government role, monetarism, investment, financial system, property rights, corruption, and employment, the latter just added this year.
The report concluded that the local economy is 70.3% free (on a 1 to 100 scale), which puts it among the countries with more freedom. It scored highest in tax, government, labor, and monetary freedom. According to the Foundation, El Salvador has relatively low tax rates. However, it did not do well in corruption. At 42%, this was its lowest score.
Additionally, the report indicates that the course taken by some property right actions shows that the legal system is subject to manipulation by private interests, and final rulings are not always enforced. However, this was offset by the progress made in freedom to invest, the low tax burden, the scarce government influence in the economy, and trade liberalization. The country continues to be the freest in Central America and ranks 7th out of the 29 countries in the Americas. Hong Kong ranks first in the world in economic freedom, while Chile is number one in Latin America.
HONDURAS
Brazilian Santista to Set Up Shop in Honduras
The Brazilian textile company Santista finally accepted to set up in Honduras, investing US$150 million as reported by the Vice Minister of Trade, Jorge Rosa. The company has already received the environmental permits and other necessary approvals and has, in fact, purchased the land for the plant. The government officer expressed that this will obviously mean many new jobs for the country since, aside from building the facilities, workers will be needed to operate the textile plant.
All permits have been approved, especially the environmental ones, said Rosa, who also explained that the Secretaría de Recursos Naturales y el Ambiente (Secretariat of Natural Resources and the Environment) has awarded the license. The Vice Minister of Trade expressed that they will meet with a representative of Santista to fine-tune the final details. This was made public in the framework of the recent visit of the President of Brazil.
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