Through an open letter to the President of the Republic, the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction requests the immediate intervention of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA). This is 1 out of 7 actions, proposed directly to President Carlos Alvarado by the Construction Association, to fight problems that are affecting the country and that prevent the economy from reactivating and, thus, reducing unemployment.
The letter, signed by the president of the Chamber, Esteban Acón, includes the following proposals to generate immediate and quantifiable results:
- Intervene the AyA to refocus the institutional efforts towards the most urgent tasks, guaranteeing adequate planning and control that ensures the completion of the projects within the required deadlines.
- Create a roadmap of urgent actions, with established deadlines, that provides efficient and effective solutions to address the problems of water availability by reducing the legal uncertainty in terms of bureaucratic procedures.
- Promote a real reform for public employment, by guaranteeing the increase in efficiency of public spending.
- Stop the participation of ICE in consultancy, design and construction activities of public works, through a Presidential Directive that obliges that entity to limit its involvement only to the activities for which it is empowered by Law.
- With regard to Tax Reform, define how the chaining and the gradual implementation of the Value Added Tax (IVA) will be applied. An immediate application, such as the one proposed by the Ministry of Finance, would make housing and other buildings more expensive by 9% and would cause a slowdown on that sector and the economy.
- Facilitate access to housing credits, considering that the middle class has the most problems in this area.
- Increase investment in public works, especially to address the backlog in infrastructure.
- Deepen and accelerate the regulatory improvement for all of the construction sector.
In the letter, the Chamber warns: “There is a huge concern about the lack of confidence, both at the business and consumer levels, factors that have contributed to the slowdown in growth and the increase in unemployment. To date, measures taken by the Government have not shown tangible results”, the statement concludes.