MAHI LECTURE DAY

Today was a day of lectures.  Of course it began with a delicious breakfast in the lobby area where I was able to indulge in the sweet, fresh fruit found here in Costa Rica.  Our lectures began at 9:30 and went through to 5 p.m. 

The first lecture was given by a woman named Vanessa.  She is employed with CINDE, Costa Rica Investment Promotion Agency.  The agency has been operating for 31 years and realizes the need for foreign investment to keep the country of Costa Rica going.  They provide companies with free information and free support.  They promote the six main reasons why people should choose Costa Rica for their business, such as the quality of life, a proven track record, and a quality work force.  She informed us that Costa Rice exports 4562 different products to 147 destination countries, proving that they really do rely on foreign investment.  All in all Costa Rica is a great place to put a company.

The second presentation was about the tourism industry here in Costa Rica and how it compared to tourism industries around the world. France is considered the #1 destination to travel, followed by the United States, and then China.  But Costa Rica has potential to grow as ecotourism is increasing in popularity and the idea of "sea, sun and sand" is decreasing.  Costa Rica promotes the idea of sustaining the forest and the wildlife here for future generations.  Tourism provides millions of jobs and there are many travel products, with 20 main categories and 44 subcategories. They develop all products under the umbrella of sustainability, whether it is scuba diving or touring a chocolate factory.  They believe in sustainable development, a sustainable community, a sustainable production, and a sustainable agriculture.

The third was about promoting trade to get products created in Costa Rica to other countries.  PROCOMER, an export agency of Costa Rica, helps companies within Costa Rica to reach out to other countries around the world in order to export their products.  The companies tell PROCOMER what type of customer they are looking to sell to and PROCOMER goes out (in their different regions around the world) and finds the customer of interest to send to the international trade shows, business agendas (meetings), and trade missions, which are not as personalized as business agendas, but are much more competitive.  Their goal is to facilitate the internationalization of enterprises (SMEs)  through the timely supply of information, training and advice for making strategic and operational decisions.

The fourth speaker was difficult to understand in that his English was not that great.  Poor guy seemed so nervous to speak in front of a room of American people.  From what I gathered from the presentation, the goal of his company, Estado de la Region (State of the Nation/Region), is to figure out better ways to create a better quality of life for future generations.  By better quality of life, I mean better education system, road ways to connect towns and cities, and the like.  Listen on the slide show were the ways Costa Rica has experiences change in the past 20 years:

 5 transitional processes
1. War to peace: sustainable peace, with advent of peace came new challenge, how to build socially and economically sustain able peace
2. Authoritarian to democracy: inclusion and rule of law, new challenge: how to ensure rule of law and citizen inclusion
3. ISI to open economies: challenge is how to increase the development performance of the countries and how to transform this economic dynamism into greater opportunities of wealth for population under poverty line (50%)
4. Rural to urban societies: came with rising expectations in terms of social services and public services (transportation)
5. Pyramidal to rhomboidal demographic structure: needs to dramatically increase productivity to face this situation

 

In between the speakers, lunch was served.  We were first served delicious soup, red in color, and I'm pretty sure it was some type of tomato soup.  We were then served a buffet styled lunch, with salad and a choice of fish or chicken.  I chose the Mahi Mahi and it was beyond amazing!!  I can't say I've ever tried Mahi Mahi before but I may never eat another type of fish (grilled or baked) again!! 

 

All in all it was not a bad day!  But it's now time to eat some dinner and enjoy some drinks before we hit the sack to rest for a day of touring tomorrow!!