The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, stated that the country promotes diversifying investments and plans strategic alliances with the Middle East, as part of a foreign policy vision of “bringing more Costa Rica to the world.”
In an effort to consolidate and diversify commercial and diplomatic relations, the Costa Rican Government has worked for months with strategic negotiations with Saudi Arabia. According to the president, the initiative responds to the fact that the country seeks to have “1,000 friends and no enemies.”
Going out and looking for partners
“Public investment was neglected for years (…) so we have to go out and look for partners, we have to invest in exporting capital that we need. That’s where we are, we are negotiating free trade agreements with the Emirates (United Arabs), also with Israel. “We are opening mutual embassies and eliminating visas for some Saudi citizens,” said Chaves in an interview at which he evaluated the 2023 results.
The president highlighted the current financial position of Saudi Arabia, with international monetary reserves and investment funds, which has led to the need to invest outside its borders to optimize its resources.
This situation has created a unique opportunity for Costa Rica, which seeks to attract foreign investment to address a public investment deficit that has persisted for years, the president said.
Huge investments
“The international monetary reserves and investment funds that Saudi Arabia has are so enormous that they need to invest abroad for their own benefit, because they save more than they invest. That gives them an excess in the external balances account, in the capital account, which means that they have to go out and invest. What does Costa Rica need, a country with such a large public investment deficit? Investment,” explained Chaves.
The Costa Rican president indicated that he is interested in all areas of investment such as transportation, hospitality and agriculture, as well as complementary areas between the countries.
In addition, he highlighted that Costa Rica is working to be part of the economic integration agreement Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and has established other agreements with countries such as Ecuador and New Zealand as part of its foreign vision.
A win-win situation
“I believe that this is a win-win and instead of being afraid, as many Latin American countries and Costa Rica did for years, we are competing. (…) We have a trade policy of export promotion, investment production and diplomatic investments, which Costa Rica did not have decades ago,” Chaves pointed out.
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Guillermo Agudelo
