Let's Finish The San
José Airport Now, La
República Urges
Government
In a front page
editorial Wednesday, the
daily Spanish language
newspaper La República
urged the government to
come to agreement with
the manager of the Juan
Santamaría (San José)
international airport
, Alterra Partners, and get the urgently
needed airport finished
once and for all.
The San José airport is
almost a decade in the
making and the growth of
tourism in the last
couple of years has
strained airport
resources to the limit.
Last week another round
of postponements will
again delay the
completion as financing
for the project backed
out leaving Alterra and
the government at odds,
as the government
threatens to substitute
Alterra if they cannot
come to an agreement in
the next sixty days.
The removal of Alterra,
the República editorial
says would give the
wrong signal to foreign
investors who will see
the country as
untrustworthy and if the
government were to hand
over the airport
operation to another
private company, it
would be indicate
government disorder.
The República explains
that the problem is that
in the last several
years many began to
believe that the giving
of concessions was the
way to go, a blend of
private enterprise and
capital investing in
infrastructure, leaving
government to invest in
social programs And, the
mechanism allows private
companies with
experience to run
operations like the
airport, for example,
much more efficient that
the government with no
experience.
And it is for that
reason that the
República urges the
government to come to
agreement with Alterra
and let them finish the
airport.
The República editors
are asking the
government to consider
that and other factors
to resolve the situation
and not further damage
the tourism industry,
which has become the
most important business
in the country at the
moment and not create
more obstacles for the
efforts of thousands of
Costa Rican executives
and professionals in
making the economy more
productive.
The editorial closes in
saying that the
essential is not the way
or manner in which the
work on the
infrastructure is
manager, but rather that
it be completed.
Hagámoslo ya! (Lets get
it done!) urges the
daily newspaper.
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