Caribbean & Central America - March 2015 (ISSN 1741-4458)

President Luis Guillermo Solís paid a visit to the Caribbean port city of Limón on 8 March to attend the groundbreaking of the US$1bn Moín Container Terminal. The new port is the most significant of a series of infrastructure projects on which the centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) government is now embarking, including the expansion of the road leading from the capital, San José, to Limón and the San José-San Ramón highway.

Long delayed over labour and environmental disputes, the new terminal is expected to take three years to build. It will sit on an 80-hectare island to the west of the original Moín docks. According to Paul Gallie, the managing director of APM Terminals, the Dutch contractor that will carry out the work, the project will result in the most advanced container port of its kind in Central America, capable of hosting Post-Panamax ships. The new terminal will have four times Moín’s current capacity, eventually reaching 2.5 million TEUs, twenty-foot equivalent units.

In the World Economic Forum’s 2014-2015 Global Competitiveness Report Costa Rica came 115^th out of 144 countries surveyed in terms of its port infrastructure. Gallie told the press attending the groundbreaking ceremony that the new port would offer Costa Rica the chance to take advantage of its proximity to the Panama Canal after years of scant investment.

Initially, the construction project will require 700 workers; when the first phase is complete another 600 people will be contracted to operate the terminal. Though many of the jobs will go to locals, there is a severe skills shortage in the city. Only 17% of Limón’s school children graduate from high school, meaning many positions will be filled by newcomers to the area.

Roads

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Solís said that the port was one of several projects in the works that would improve the city. In late February, congress approved a US$395m loan from the Export-Import Bank of China to fund the US$465m expansion of Route 32, which connects San José with the Caribbean coast. One of the conditions of the loan was that the project, to expand the 107km highway from two lanes to four, be developed entirely by China Harbour Engineering Company using only Chinese workers. As such, six lawmakers, including five from the ruling PAC voted against the bill.

Another project approved by congress in late February is the upgrade to the San José-San Ramón highway. At present the 58km road is just a two-lane highway, by the time of completion the road will be expanded to eight lanes in some sections, easing congestion along the northern Costa Rican stretch of the Inter-American Highway. Some 84,000 drivers are expected to use the new road every day, each paying Col$3,500 (US$6.50) for a round trip.

The project had been severely delayed due to protests during the administration of former president Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014). Her government had granted the concession to the Brazilian construction firm OAS at a cost of US$524m, but the project was cancelled after a number of irregularities came to light, obliging the government to indemnify the company to the tune of US$35m. Now, Solís has created a trust, to be funded with the profits of state agencies, to bankroll the US$473m cost of the upgrade.