President Luis Guillermo Solis is hoping for an economic Chinese New Year in Costa Rica. According to a wire report by international news bureau Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) and published by online news daily El Pais, President Solis will visit the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in early 2015, and one of the most important items on his agenda is to drum up interest on the issue of foreign direct investment and economic collaboration.

 

During a press conference, President Solis mentioned that he will ask Chinese government officials in Peking to look into investment opportunities in the Caribbean region as well as the Northern Pacific. To this effect, a special trade zone could be created exclusively for China. One immediate item that our President will seek assistance is the completion of highway infrastructure projects that have languished for some time.

 

The three provinces where President Solis intends to stimulate Chinese investments are Guanacaste, Limon and Puntarenas. These are the three most economically disadvantaged provinces in Costa Rica; this is a head-scratching fact that becomes even more enigmatic when considering that the major shipping ports are located in Limon and Puntarenas, and that Guanacaste is the most tourism-rich region of our country.

 

Since Costa Rica established diplomatic relations with China seven years ago, investments from the PRC have surpassed the $500 million mark. President Solis will ask for even more than that as he courts Chinese officials into investing more than a billion on a complete overhaul of the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (Spanish acronym: RECOPE), a state-owned entity that essentially controls fossil fuels across the nation.

 

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, the PRC is very interested in establishing a strong economic presence not just in Costa Rica but also Central American, the Caribbean, and even Detroit.