With a GDP almost six times higher than that of Costa Rica, Singapore becomes an opportunity to generate business, investment and strategic alliances. Hence, the Costa Rican embassy in the so-called “Pearl of Asia” together with the AP-Lac Center and Procomer will promote the national offer of high-quality coffee, honey, pineapple, bananas, chocolates, tourism and orchids.
The promotion is from Wednesday the 22nd and will run until the 30th of this month. These are six different activities in which the Singaporean media has so far shown enormous interest. This was stated by Víctor Rojas, Costa Rican ambassador to the Asian country, and Cristina Calvo, organizer of the activity.
They are founding members of the Asia Pacific-Latin America Trade and Investment Promotion Center (AP-Lac).Both Rojas and Calvo recognize the potential that this small Asian city-state of 5.6 million inhabitants represents for different sectors of Costa Rica.Singapore has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world: close to $60,000 compared to just over $12,000 for Costa Ricans.
A huge opportunity
“This is a huge opportunity given that we have a free trade agreement (which entered into force on July 1st, 2013) with Singapore. It is a country with many opportunities: it is the gateway to Asia and it has a very high per capita income.“We want to hold different events that allow us to teach them all the strengths that Costa Rica has,” Calvo commented.
Activity details
This will be a fair aimed at promoting coffee, tea, fruits, supplements and other national products such as honey and chocolate.Singaporeans will have the opportunity to learn more about our golden grain and the remaining food supply in the so-called ‘Gourmet Pulpería’.
There will also be a National Barista Championship with Costa Rican expert María Elena Rivera as guest judge. Calvo said that Rivera is already in Singapore and traveled with two suitcases with coffee from Costa Rica.There are more than 40 kilos of product that will be available to visitors to this activity. In addition, this week boxes with other national products will arrive.
Costa Rican baristaMaría Elena Rivera is already in Singapore, where she will participate as a judge in the National Coffee Championship. (Courtesy AP-Lac Center). From the 25th to the 30th there will be a tour of specialty coffee shops in which the national barista and the winner of the coffee contest will participate.They will do tastings and preparation demonstrations with Costa Rican coffee, reported Calvo.
On Monday 27th there will be a coffee cupping. It is a fashion that has spread among connoisseurs of the golden bean and it is literally a tasting session to taste and evaluate the coffee.This coffee cupping will be promoted to buyers from the Singapore Coffee Association.
Orchids, business and tourism
On June 28th, an exhibition of orchids from Costa Rica will be inaugurated, specifically from the Lenkester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica, in the Gardens By The Bay.It is the biggest attraction of this parliamentary republic in Southeast Asia. It has 101 hectares and houses more than a million plants from the five continents.Among them are numerous orchids donated by Lenkester, located in Paraíso de Cartago. Even last year a GuariaMorada was born in this space.
The Costa Rican ambassador mentioned that within the framework of these activities, an agreement will be signed between Gardens by the Bay and Lankester. There will also be a specialized talk on orchids.In this exhibition -which will last two weeks- 50 special guests will be present, including diplomats and representatives of business organizations from Singapore.
This in view of the fact that he will take the opportunity to speak at a lunch about the benefits of Costa Rica as an investment destination for this small Asian territory.Calvo added that on June 30th a tourism round will be held in which they seek to “sell” Costa Rica as a destination and tourist hub.
The goal is to get Singaporeans to see our country as an exotic destination that they can complement with other nations such as Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia or Peru.
