Chinchilla In U.S. Promotes Costa Rica As Direct Foreign Investment Destination http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/may/18/costarica11051809.htm

Costa Rica's presidenta, Laura Chinchilla, met with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the benefits of the U.S. investing more in Costa Rica.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, who grew up in a politically involved family, is the first female president of Costa Rica, discussed international trade, foreign investment, economic development and other issues at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) yesterday.Her talk on Tuesday evening was part of the GSB’s “Global Speakers Series.” Chinchilla opened her speech by stating that her country has developed in a relatively peaceful and environmentally friendly way.

“We Costa Ricans have always believed in achieving prosperity through peace, freedom and the rule of law,” Chinchilla said. “That is a major national understanding and through history we have taken the decision to follow our beliefs.”She hopes that Costa Rica will be Latin America’s first developed country and is a strong proponent of free trade.“We are very well-integrated into the international economy,” she said. “Our products compete very well in the most important markets in the world. That is why instead of being afraid of continuing this path, we want to look for more opportunities.”

[ALSO SEE ...Wikileaks Reveals US Pressure to FTA with Costa Rica http://www.costaricanewssite.com/wikileaks-reveals-us-pressure-to-fta-with-costa-rica

The U.S. Embassy in San Jose put pressure to encourage the adoption of a Totally free Trade Agreement (FTA) among the U.S. and Costa Rica, according to Wikileaks cables released these days by the newspaper La Nación. The FTA brought on the rejection of many sectors of the Costa Rican population due to the asymmetries among the economies of both countries and also due to the fact it allowed the privatization of state sectors such as insurance and telecommunications.

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(I DO NOT ENDORSE WIKILEAKS,BUT MY BILATERAL WATCH ARTICLES ON COSTA RICA ARE IN SPANISH AND THIS ARTICLE ABOVE IS IN ENGLISH,I HAD TO SUPPLEMENT IN ENGLISH FOR MY ENG, SPEAKING READERS..