"Stop Fighting Among Yourselves and Start Competing With Others", Expert Tells Costa Rica
"Costa Rica could be one of the first world countries in 10 to 15 years", according to analyst Juan Enríquez Cabot, who gave a talk on Monday at the Auditorio Nacional, of which Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, was present.

In a report by the Spanish language daily, La Nación, Cabot is quoted as saying that Costa Rica needs to close the technology gap, base its economy on education and technological know how; open its borders and duplicate and triplicate its efforts to attract more "Intels" and "Inbios" to the country.

"Stop arguing with each other and start competing with others", was Cabot's advice.

Juan Enriquez, is a bestselling author, businessman, and academic, is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences.

In Monday's talk, which was the second in the country, the first given in 2005, Cabot talked about the fragility of countries, the comparative advantage of small countries who is educated.

Cabot has published several key articles including, "Transforming Life, Transforming Business: the Life Science Revolution," co-authored with Ray Goldberg, which received a McKinsey Prize in 2000 (2nd place). He co-authored the first map of global nucleotide data flow as well as HBS working papers on "Life Sciences in Arabic Speaking Countries", "Global Life Science Data Flows and the IT industry", "SARS, Smallpox, and Business Unusual," and "Technology, Gene Research and National Competitiveness." Harvard Business School Interactive picked Juan as one of the best teachers at HBS and showcased his work in its first set of faculty products.

The talk was organized by Roberto Artvia of the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (Incae) and Roberto Sasso, president of the Club de Investigación Tecnológica.

cabot feels that Costa Rica is on the wrong side of the digital gap, which is growing bigger. "Imagine a country without a democracy, were the control of all - schools, radio, newspaper, employment - is not the by the government", said Cabot, referring to East Germany that disappeared in only nine days.

Cabot added that the fragility of a country is not exclusive to communist or poor countries. Nations and empires have disappeared "when there is dissonance between what is said what happens, what is promised and what is given", said Cabot, who added that no one is immune to that.

National hymns, flags and borders are all artificial things, myths and identities that are generated to keep a country are not enough to maintain its life.

What is the solution? According to Cabot, it is by opening borders and new markets, understand ones own language and culture and adopt those of others, in addition to learn to move quickly with a population educated in science and technology.

Cabot assured that Costa Rica, between 1970 and 1990, followed a development model similar to that of Asian tigers - Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and south Korea.

Those countries, with investment in education and technology, went in less than three decades from a underdevelopment to developed. They taught their people the "digital" language.

Cabot said that Costa Rica was going the same way, investing in education, creating the Fundación Omar Dengo, and the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio). "Some ten years ago, Costa Rica promised to be the first developed country in Latin America", Cabot said.

However, it fell behind. it fell into a "eight sabbatical... and sabbaticals are very costly", declared Cabot.

"I believe that if Costa Rica had not taken the sabbatical, it was on the way to being developed along side Chile and Panama", said Cabot.

Although the country fell asleep for the eight years, Cabot feels that all is not lost. In a decade, Costa Rica could join the developed world, and for that it has to step on the accelerator.,

"You are moving ahead, now speed up", emphasized Cabot. "You won't do it duplicating the wealth of the farmers, you will do it duplicating the investment in biotechnology and computer engineering", added Cabot.

Cabot added that the development can be done "a la tica", respecting its decision for sustainable development while protecting the ecology.

On the subject of the Tratado de Libre Comercio - free trade agreement with the United States - Cabot said that this is a Costa Rican decision and that no one, not the United States or Venezuela, for instance, can tell you what to do. "It is a decision that you alone have to take, however with serious debate and no insults", said Cabot.