The President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado, sanctioned this week the “Law to Strengthen Territorial Competitiveness to Promote the Attraction of Investments Outside the Greater Metropolitan Area“, No. 10234. The initiative, approved by a resounding majority of deputies of the Legislative Assembly, will seek to promote the generation of employment and development opportunities in these areas and close persistent gaps that hinder their economic reactivation.
“Economic development and the benefits generated by free zones must be expanded outside the Greater Metropolitan Area to multiply employment and well-being opportunities for all Costa Ricans. It is urgent to take advantage of the free zone regime to strengthen development poles outside the GAM”, said the President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado.
Andrés Valenciano, Minister of Foreign Trade and President of the Board of Directors of PROCOMER, institutions that co-manage the free zone regime, celebrated the scope of this result, which, he indicated, “will undoubtedly transcend as a fundamental piece in the strategy to promote more opportunities of growth in Costa Rica, that they leave no one behind”. He added that “this has been a priority in the foreign trade sector, made up of COMEX, PROCOMER and CINDE, institutions that from their trenches have been articulating efforts to strengthen development in the regions. In this very important work led, on this occasion, by CINDE, we are very pleased to have been able to participate and contribute to the technical roundtables set up to generate the necessary consensus to bring this law to fruition”.
Attracting investment to the country
For his part, Jorge Sequeira, General Director of CINDE, highlighted, “This is a new generation incentive scheme to attract investment in our country and, for the first time, outside the GAM, its use comes first. It is a reflection of an articulated work that we have been carrying out for more than 7 years, hand in hand with 20 communities, and impacts 49% of the population or what represents 2.5 million people.
The identification of needs and gathering of joint information with all these community actors, including the National Network of Local Economic Development Agencies (RENADEL), represented a critical technical input to nurture public policy proposals that manage to boost economic reactivation and employability in the neediest areas”Sequeira thanked the deputies of the Republic for their hard work and strong support in bringing this project to reality.From its publication, this law will have a maximum period of six months to be regulated and put into operation in all its extremes.
For his part, Roberto Zeledón, President of the National Network of Local Economic Development Agencies (RENADEL) stressed that “this new law means a great boost for communities outside the GAM, to generate employment and reactivate their economy. For many years, our regions have needed an initiative that would promote the arrival of companies in our cantons and the revitalization of the productive activities carried out by each area. At Renadel we were born with the purpose of uniting efforts and today, in an articulated manner, we celebrate a range of possibilities for the Chorotega, Central Pacific, South Pacific, Western, North Huetar and Caribbean regions. We appreciate the work of the deputies, the accompaniment of CINDE and the President to make this project a reality”.
