The plans made between Costa Rica President Arias and Chinese President Hu Jintao last October are slowly taking shape. Several meetings that were held last week between Costa Rican and Chinese officials are setting the stage for action in 2008 and 2009 to further improve relationship between these two countries.

Costa Rica News — Negotiations between Costa Rica and China

One of the biggest issues on each country’s plate is the idea of a free trade agreement between Costa Rica and China. The Costa Rican Minister of Exterior Commerce, Marco Vinicio Ruiz met with the Chinese International Trade director Zhu Hong for three days this past week to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such an agreement between the two countries.

The main goal of the meeting was to exchange economic and commercial information so as to begin the long process of evaluating how an open trade relationship between the two countries would play out.

Ruiz said that they will not be able to conclusively detail the possible pros and cons until the initial evaluation period is concluded in June. The studies will focus on the macro economic situations of each country, preexisting bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, customs, quality of service, and their current commercial and investment policies, among other things.

Zhu Hong said that Costa Rica is an important market for his country because of the commercial relationship that has grown between the two countries in the last decade. In 2007, there was a balanced exchange of more than $2.6 billion in exportations between China and Costa Rica.

The delegations will meet again in April in Beijing, and then in June in San Jose to continue the discussions about the agreement, that if proven beneficial, is projected to come into effect in 2009.

Another outcome of President Arias’s Oct. 2007 visit to China, a promised donation of $28 by the Chinese to build a new National Stadium in Costa Rica, is coming into effect.
The two countries formalized the plan in a meeting this past Friday between the Chancellor of Costa Rica, Bruno Stagno, Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaoyuan, Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias and the Vice Minister of Sports, Osvaldo Pandolfo.

The stadium, which will be situated where the current National Stadium has been since 1941, is expected to be completed by Christmas 2009, and will have a capacity of 40,000 people. Engineers will investigate the construction details in mid-February, at which point a final cost analysis will be made.

Finally, Costa Rica Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides met with Chinese tourism officials on Wednesday of this past week to discuss bringing Chinese tourists to the nation. While details will continue to be sorted out, they decided that each country will designate travel agencies to handle planning trips that will cater to the needs of the Chinese. The two countries will also work on planning flights to the country.

The Chinese government estimated that by 2020, 200 million Chinese will be taking international vacations, and Costa Rica seems like a very attractive option in its natural offerings and ability to handle this new market.

Photo courtesy of Al Dia.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on January 12th, 2008