Costa Rica’s Ambitious New Initiative: “We will let you work”

The Costa Rican government today presented the “We’ll Let You Work” initiative, which seeks to eliminate, one of the biggest problems in the country: the unnecessary obstacles, requirements and paperwork, that affect production and the generation of jobs.

The Minister of the Presidency, Natalia Díaz, and the Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce, Francisco Gamboa, presented the initiative and are now waiting for the various productive sectors of the country to indicate which processes they consider to be a barrier for business and productivity.

Natalia Díaz confirmed the government’s commitment to resolve the institutional entanglement that not only affects citizens, but also companies and producers. She also expressed the best way to address the concerns of companies is by listening to those who are affected by this situation.

Díaz stressed President Rodrigo Chaves’ administration is convinced the only way to reactivate the economy is to allow people to work, which is what the government is looking for with this initiative.

“The Costa Rican government is absolutely committed to the generation of more and better jobs; we are an ally of the productive sector. This is why we are implementing, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce, an initiative to eliminate all the obstacles that affect our development,” Natalia Diaz explained.

“Along those lines, we are launching the initiative ‘We’ll let you work.’ We are consulting the different productive sectors-which represent micro, small, medium and large companies and asking them to tell us about the bottlenecks that stop them from generating more jobs,” highlighted Francisco Gamboa.

For the time being, the initiative is focused on eliminating those obstacles by means of decrees or administrative orders.

The public officials asked the private sector to send their feedback by June 15 and to specify the obstacle and a proposal to solve the problem.

“We are working towards a real economic boost,” concluded the Minister of the Presidency.

Once this first phase has been completed, the government will also consult on legislative initiatives to be presented to Costa Rican Congress, in order to continue eliminating obstacles.