News
Home
Page
Costa
Rica
Latin
America
Sections
Special
Reports
Travel/Tourism
Real
Estate
Business
Health
The
Internet
Letters
Opinion
Colu
millionists
Leisure
EroTica
Entertainment
The
Take!
Learn
Spanish
Photos
Editorial
Letters
Opinion
Columnists
Public
Forum
Who We Are
About
Us
Contact Us
Advertise
with us
Subscribe
to our
Newsletter
Links
Page
|
 |
BUSINESS
- Friday 11 February 2005
<
Back
Send this Page To a Friend |
IDB Approves $16 Million Dollar
Loan to Costa Rica
The Inter-American Development
Bank today announced the
approval of a $16 million loan
to Costa Rica for the first
phase of a sustainable
development program in Atlantic
Huetar Region (RHA), a province
with potential for tourism and
production but also with high
levels of poverty and
vulnerability to natural
disasters.
The RHA, which covers 9,189
square kilometers on the
Atlantic Coast, between
Nicaragua and Panama, is home to
most of Costa Rica’s
Afro-descendent and indigenous
peoples. This biodiversity-rich
region has 32 protected
wilderness areas and coastal
zones with development
potential.
The program, which was designed
with support of a grant from the
IDB-administered Japan Special
Fund, will be carried out in two
phases. The first is expected to
take four years and cost $18
million, while the second phase
would be executed over five
years and cost an estimated $30
million.
The main goals are to promote
economic and social development
projects, reduce risks of
disasters, improve natural
resource conservation and
management, and strengthen
governance at the municipal and
regional levels.
The economic and social
development component will
foster diversification of
production and job creation in
the RHA, focusing on the needs
of poor and vulnerable groups,
such as women heads of
household, campesino settlements
and indigenous communities.
Pilot projects will be financed
to improve the production of
plantains and systems combining
forestry and cattle-grazing; as
well as small-scale investments
in drainage works, access roads
and other basic services will
support output in campesino
settlements.
To promote tourism the program
will support the marking of
footpaths in protected areas and
the drafting of local tourism
management plans. It will also
finance activities proposed by
women’s organizations, such as
training in handcraft production
and marketing.
|
|
The program will support
measures to reduce the region’s
vulnerability to natural risks
and mitigate the economic and
social impact of disasters.
Among other activities it will
finance the mapping of the risk
of floods in key watersheds, the
expansion of the region’s
network of hydro-meteorological
stations, the development of
early warning systems, the
prevention of settlements in
high-risk areas and the
construction of small-scale
flood control infrastructure.
The program will also assist the
government in its efforts to
improve its preparedness and
response to emergencies such as
the floods that hit the region
in January after heavy rains
caused rivers to overflow,
killing several people and
devastating around 280
communities.
Another component will help
strengthen the region’s
administrative, financial,
economic, environmental and
social management. To improve
municipal governments, it will
finance action plans to improve
customer service, boost revenues
and establish community-based
structures to run services such
as road maintenance and trash
collection and disposal.
The program, which will be
carried out by Costa Rica’s
Ministry of Planning and
Economic Policy, with support
from the RHA’s Development
Council, will also encourage
citizen participation and
proposals from community-based
groups and canton committees.
These committees will include
delegates from the municipal
governments, civil society and
producer associations. They will
receive projects put forward by
citizens as well as propose and
evaluate other projects to be
financed by the program.
All the activities will take
place across the RHA, except in
the southern canton of Talamanca,
which is covered by an IDB-financed
sustainable development program
for the Sixaola watershed.
The IDB loan is for a 20-year
term, with a four-year grace
period and a variable,
LIBOR-based interest rate.
|
|
|
|
|