Costa Rica advances four positions in global competitiveness

Taken from: www.nacion.com

Costa Rica advanced four positions in the global competitiveness ranking presented by the World Economic Forum, in the city of Dalian, Chinea.

The country occupies the position #55 among 133 countries. Last year it figured in the position #59.

Among the factors that influenced for the progress of the country figure the improvements in infrastructure carried out by concessionsof public work, ports and the administration change the Juan Santamaría international airport on the part of the American consortium Houston Airport System, explained Mr. Lawrence Pratt, director of the Latin-American Center for the Competitiveness and Sustainable Development of INCAE (Costa Rican Institute of Business Administration.

The Report of Global Competitiveness analyzes 12 factors to determine the efficiency of the countries (institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, higher education, goods market efficiency, efficiency of labor market, sophistication of the financial market, technological preparation, and size of the market, business sophistication and innovation).

Expedition will explore hills in the marine bottom of the country

Taken from: www.nacion.com

At some 500 kilometers from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, at the bottom of the sea, lie submerged hills of great natural wealth that have never been explored. Two of them, called Las Gemelas, will be studied for the first time by various marine explorers in order to discover how was life in the ocean before human intervention.

The National Geographic organization is in charge of the expedition and counts on a team of 15 investigators from Mexico, New Zealand, United States, Costa Rica and Spain. Its objective is to give light to the mysteries around the biodiversity of this zone and to study the health state of Cocos Island.

The crew will remain until October 1st in the island. According to a report of The Nature Conservancy, Las Gemelas probably have a great natural wealth. However, they remain unprotected. Enric Sala, a Spanish marine ecologist that is heading the expedition, commented that one of their objectives is to describe the present ecosystems in these hills.

"This is a pure exploration; Las Gemelas hills are part of the last unexplored places of the world and, along with the Cocos Island, are jewels in the sea", indicated Sala. According to this explorer, there is a great possibility that this study will obtain data of probably unknown species, and the information obtained will be put at the disposal of the authorities to determine its eventual protection.

Sala explained that the Las Gemelas are part of Cocos Dorsal Number, which extends since the Galapagos Islands to the Osa peninsula. These mounts have their upper part only 250 meters deep, but they are at least 2,000 meters under the sea. "The expedition counts on two vessels that will remain near the Island and of the hills, respectively. A submarine will permit us to descend up to 400 meters to study the diversity of Las Gemelas", mentioned Sala.

Jorge Cortez, one of the Costa Rican investigators of the crew, will be the only scientist to collect samples from these mounts. "We will take care of the collectin of a series of corals and we will classify them to determine if any unknown species exist.”affirmed Cortez. The data obtained in the expedition will be published in the blog of Ocean Now (http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/blog/) that will be brought up to date periodically.

Arias will go to New York to speak on environment

Taken from: www.nacion.com

Costa Rican president Oscar Arias is preparing already the speeches that he will pronounce in New York in the General Assembly of the United Nations. This will take place on the last two weeks of September, in a meeting on climate change.

Arias will arrive at New York September 21st., accompanied by the foreign minister, Bruno Stagno, and the Minister of Environment, Jorge Rodriguez.

Oscar Arias will be one of the five heads of state that will deliver speeches in the summit on climate change. United States president, Barack Obama, and that of China, Hu Jintao will be delivering speeches. The topics that will be up for discussion are those of poor countries and in name of the islands whose future is in danger by the increase of the sea level due to the global warming.

Arias will speak about countries with average income, which, according to analysts, are the ones that carry the major weight in the fight against the climate change.

"It’s not about speaking about Peace with Nature, but to understand the challenge in global terms", declared the Costa Rican ambassador in the USA.

On Thursday 24, Arias will coincide with Obama and Hu, and therefore they will participate in a debate on nuclear weapons, organized by United States as temporary president of the Security Council of the United Nations. The presidents of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, Russia, Dimitri Medvedev, the British Gordon Brown and the Libyan, Muamar al Gadafi will be present in this meeting.