Costa Rica Call Center Blog

Today Presidential elections were held in Costa Rica.  Laura Chinchilla, former Vice President from the Arias administration won by a landslide 47% versus 25% of the socialist Otton Solis and 21% of libertarian Otto Guevara.  Chinchilla is the first female president of the country.

This vote represents the desire by a majority to continue with 4 more years on the current policies.  Some of the achievements of the Arias administration have been:

• Approved CAFTA (free trade agreement with the US)
• Brought back credibility and trust to the government therefore stimulating investment and growth
• Restarted a stalled concession of the San Jose airport to a world class operator
• Build the highway to the Pacific Ocean (road on the drawing board for > 30 years)
• Did a good handling of the world economic crisis therefore minimizing negative effects on the country
• Set a guide and engaged on actions to allow the country to reach carbon neutrality by 2021
• Approved the new FTZ laws
• Started diplomatic relations with China
• Started and may end negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement with Europe, China and Singapore
• Started a very successful program to allow High School students to continue their studies (Avancemos)
• Had a fiscal surplus for the first years reducing the public debt significantly

On the negative side on the export driven economy of Costa Rica, the policies have brought a new strength on the Costa Rican currency.