IN an effort to promote musical education in schools, Juan Bansbach Instrumentos Musicales will provide teachers in Costa Rica with instruction on the recorder.

The music store, which also offers lessons, signed an agreement of this nature with Minister of Education Manuel Bolaños last week, the Ministry of Public Education announced.

The recorder is an excellent way to introduce music and music theory to students, according to Bolaños.

The Ministry has used the recorder in music lessons for more than 30 years because study can bring understanding of basic music techniques, according to Ministry officials. The instrument also is economically affordable.

Colombian José Hernando Cobo, a flute expert, will instruct teachers on the instrument in three-day seminars during the month of June. Participating teachers will then share the lessons with their students.

Bolaños said he hopes the program will help inspire enthusiasm for music among students.

A special commission of the Legislative Assembly was created this week to analyze the country’s education system and make recommendations for its improvement.

The commission will take three months to generate ideas to improve the quality, fairness and equality of Costa Rican education and its financing, according to congressman Mario Redondo, of the Social Christian Unity Party. This deadline could be extended as the commission works to propose bills and establish or revise initiatives for changes to the system, he added.

The proposal for the commission arose after a series of forums on the topic coordinated by the Ministry of Public Education and the National Council of Rectors, according to proponents Redondo and congresswoman Elvia Navarro, of the Patriotic Bloc.

Education is fundamental to the future development of the country, in the fight to combat violence and in the formation of quality Costa Ricans, Redondo said.

Before any improvements to education can be made, it is essential legislators pass a fiscal reform bill, Navarro added.

THE World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that experts will meet in Panama City next week to discuss methods of protection for spiny lobster populations in the mangroves and coral reefs along the Caribbean coast of Central America, currently threatened by over-fishing.

For many living on the Caribbean coast, according to the organization, lobster fishing provides their only source of income.

“We’re not thinking about eliminating lobster fishing, but rather achieving better management practices, where we can harmonize the criteria of the closed season, the minimum legal capture sizes, the permitted fishing nets and the indicators to estimate and control the effort,” said Moisés Mug, the WWF official in charge of fish for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The most harmed by the fishing of the spiny lobster are the indigenous Garífuna and Misquito tribes living on the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, as authorities said inadequate scuba diving practices have seriously affected their health.

Also, representatives of the organization said, mangroves and coral reefs are suffering the consequences of human interference.

The experts meeting in Panama City will discuss these problems with members of area fishing communities and local fishing authorities, with the goal of obtaining more sustainable fishing practices.

MEMBERS of the Social Christian Unity Party announced this week that state banks may be able to hand out loans to those granted tourism concessions inside the Papagayo Tourism Development Project zone, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, allowing them to use the concession as collateral for the loan.

Whether the practice will be allowed depends on whether a bill modifying Article 4 of the regulatory law governing the tourism development project is approved by the Legislative Assembly.

The announcement came after the approval of the bill by the assembly’s Special Tourism Commission, headed by Social Christian Unity Party legislator Jorge Álvarez. The bill will now head to the floor of the Legislative Assembly for discussion.

Álvarez said the advance represents a significant step toward clearing the obstacles in the development of the tourism industry in the country.

“With this initiative we seek to cover a legal vacuum inside this law, with respect to the setting up of guaranteed loans for the development of tourist projects,” Álvarez said.

THE Public Security Ministry will inaugurate a new U.S.-funded drug control checkpoint today at the Peñas Blancas station on the northern border with Nicaragua.

The $1 million station will serve as a “strangulation point,” to help combat the flow of drugs through Costa Rican territory, according to ministry officials.

Paul Chaves, special advisor to the Drug Control Police (PCD), said authorities have made a solid connection between Guatemalan trucks and cocaine trafficking, and that the new center would make it nearly impossible for traffickers to get across the border undetected in large vehicles (TT, April 2).

Even before the opening of the station this year, police seized hundreds of kilograms of cocaine at the Peñas Blancas border crossing.

In the last week of March alone, police seized more than 550 kilograms of cocaine at Peñas Blancas in two separate busts. Both involved Guatemalan trucks.

RICARDO Toledo has announced he will resign from his post as Minister of the Presidency on April 30 and return on May 2, after resuming his seat in the Legislative Assembly for one day to vote May 1.

He will return to the Legislative Assembly to vote for Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) deputy Gerardo González for President of the Congress.

The decision came in response to a request by Federico Vargas, head of PUSC, Toledo said.

Toledo said he is allowed the maneuver under the Costa Rican Constitution.

Article 111 states: “After taking oath of office, no representative may accept any position or employment with other State Branches or autonomous institutions, under penalty of losing his credentials, except as a Cabinet member. In this case, he shall be reinstated in the Assembly when he is no longer in such a position.”

Vice-Minister of the Presidency, Randall Quirós, will fill Toledo’s position as minister during his one-day absence.

ISTHMUS, an upstart Costa Rican information technology outsourcing firm, hopes to take advantage of the opportunities being created by a growing trend among North American firms seeking to transfer – or outsource – parts of their operations abroad.

What is outsourcing?

Acompany conducts outsourcing when it acquires an essential product or service from a separate provider instead of providing it in-house. By outsourcing, companies can reduce operating costs and improve their efficiency by focusing on their core business, explained Andy Hilliard, Chief Operations Officer for IsThmus.

IsThmus aims to be a leader in Costa Rica’s growing outsourcing industry. “It’s something inevitable,” Hilliard said. “It can’t be stopped. We’re in the middle of the fastest growing part of the growth curve.”

COSTA Rica’s geographic location, educated workforce and competitive wages combine to create a favorable business climate for outsourcing from North America firms – particularly with the proposed Central America Free-Trade Agreement with the United States on the horizon.

Originally, firms outsourced services from their main headquarters to other parts of their home country. But in recent years, mainly as a result of improvements in global communications networks, companies have found it easier to transfer parts of their operations near-shore (to foreign countries close to their center of operations, such as Costa Rica for a U.S. company) or offshore (a foreign country located faraway, such as India), Hilliard explained.

TODAY, all kinds of services – technology development and maintenance, corporate accounting, customer service, technical support for products ranging from home appliances to software, translation services and even X-ray interpretation – can and are being outsourced from developed countries to more cost-efficient locations.

Costa Rica has benefited from the growing outsourcing trend. Today, the country is  home to several large companies that provide outsourcing services, most notably Sykes Latin America and Procter & Gamble (TT, Jan. 30).

In 2001, the Wall Street Journal ranked Costa Rica the number one developing country to watch based on connectivity, information security, human capital, business climate proximity and priority given by government to high-tech business.

ISTHMUS was founded last year as a U.S.-market-oriented division of Costa Rican software developer Lidersoft. The company’s center of operations is located in San José, and it has U.S regional offices in California, New York and North Carolina.

The company’s main services are developing custom business and Web software applications for foreign companies, translating existing software into Spanish and adapting software designed to run on one platform to run other platforms.

“Essentially, we help businesses build and maintain custom applications or implement applications they buy from other companies,” Hilliard said. “Also, today, most U.S. companies need bilingual technology services to help them interact with their Hispanic customers.”

Isthmus, which employs 75 people and has plans to expand, also provides full support for the software it develops. This includes upgrading and modifying the software – everything needed to keep it up and running. Those are the company’s “coreservices,”

according to Hilliard.

HOWEVER, IsThmus also is attempting to branch out to other areas of outsourcing by offering additional services.

Many of these services are provided through strategic alliances with other companies.

Alliances with Costa Rican technology firms include the program eLearning with Aura Interactiva and application hosting via Inter@merica. Web-based application design and development is done in alliance with U.S.-based Vialogix.

IsThmus more recently set its sights on offering Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services – assisting companies fulfill certain back-office technology processes, such as a Technical Help Desk for information technology personnel and the ongoing management of Web-based applications.

HILLIARD believes the country is in an excellent position to take advantage of growing technology-outsourcing opportunities.

For starters, he said, the country benefits from being located near the United States – between two and five hours from most big cities. Being in the same time zone as some parts of the United States makes it easier for companies in both countries to coordinate meetings, maintain communication and conduct joint projects. That’s not the case with offshore competitors in India and East Asia, he said.

Costa Rica also benefits from being a politically stable country with a large English-speaking population, he said.

“NO one can take away our competitive advantage,” Hilliard explained.

“Today’s market is hot. The sooner we deliver on our potential, the better it will be for the country. It’s time to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Hilliard said it’s imperative for the private sector and the government to work together to make the country more competitive as a technology destination.

“In order for Costa Rica to succeed, there has to be an absolute commitment and a proactive stance, not only in promoting the country as a technology destination, but also in taking the appropriate government, educational and company measures to achieve that potential,” he said.

“Costa Rica’s attributes and advantages are phenomenal. U.S. companies say time and time again: build it and we will come.”

HILLIARD said he is optimistic about the future of IsThmus and outsourcing in general, and he is unconcerned with the negative publicity outsourcing has been receiving in recent months, particularly in the United States.

“Every industry sees an evolution and migration of labor to its most effective source of production. Technology can now be done all over the world and there’s really no way to prevent that. For the world economy, this is good,” he added.

For more info about IsThmus, see www.isthmusit.com.

TWO new newspapers in the northern Pacific coast region of Guanacaste are keeping English-speaking residents informed about beach community happenings.

Before they debuted, The Howler, a monthly magazine that covered the Gold Coast, and The Tico Times, this national weekly, were charged with informing Guanacaste residents in English.

Now, The Tamarindo News, a monthly bilingual paper that has been operating for about a year, and The Beach Times, a weekly that published its first edition on March 26, also are providing information to area residents and tourists.

THE newest kid on the block, The Beach Times, is a family affair that is written, photographed and laid out in its entirety by a husband-and-wife team of professional news reporters.

Australian Ralph Nicholson and Colombian Zoraida Díaz moved to Guanacaste’s Playa Potrero in January of this year.

Their paper was conceived not so much as a moneymaker (Nicholson said he will be happy to break even), but as a whetstone to keep their minds sharp and occupied.

“Even paradise can get boring if there’s nothing to do,” Nicholson said. They publish 2,500 copies weekly and distribute them throughout the PapagayoGulf, from Tamarindo to Playa Hermosa.

It is printed in color, contains original area news coverage, soccer coverage, a two-page full-color feature centerfold, international news shorts, guest columns, and letters, a Web site in the works and is free.

“I don’t want the fact that you have to pay for a newspaper to be a reason not to pick it up and read it,” Nicholson said.

The “wildly increasing English-speaking population,” as he described it, tipped him and Díaz off to the idea that there was a need in that region for a local weekly paper.

“We could have done another monthly, but there are lots of those here and frankly it’s hard for me to write a monthly. We spent our lifetimes chasing stringent deadlines,” he said. “In a monthly, the news is old before it goes to print.”

They have ironed some of the wrinkles that crease a start-up business in a developing country, including printing delays, broken printing machinery and power outages.

A couple of the highlights that Nicholson should put at the top of his resume for his lifetime reporting career are his post as the bureau chief in Jerusalem for Reuters Television and opening that company’s first bureau in Moscow in the late 1980s.

Díaz is a photojournalist who began shooting for Reuters in Colombia in 1987. She photographed events throughout the Americas, including some she described as disturbing and bloody.

The welcome letter in their first edition of The Beach Times touches on her experience as chief photographer in Bogotá when cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar was “considerably more powerful than the president.”

The pace is slower and the news less volatile in Guanacaste than in Jerusalem or Colombia, and Nicholson said he enjoys it, blaming his youth for his enthusiasm to be in the midst of breaking news of worldwide importance.

THE Tamarindo News, the region’s monthly, filled a news void in the region previously informed only by The Howler.

Juanita Hayman, the publisher and editor of The Tamarindo News, claims The Howler editorialized its articles.

“We felt there was no publication that just reported the news,” Hayman said.

“Guanacaste does get some exposure in national papers, but not a lot. I don’t believe the region gets a fair representation in the Tico papers.”

The Tamarindo News first saw the light of day with the help of some front money from the local Century 21 real estate agency.

“We started doing it and it just took off,” Hayman said. Other beach communities called The Tamarindo News asking for sections dedicated to their news.

NOW, The Tamarindo News is independently owned and self-sufficient, hovering around 28 pages, according to Hayman. The company that helped launch it takes a monthly advertisement and occasionally contributes articles to the real estate section.

Hayman and her part-time staff print 3,000 copies monthly. The paper has color photos, a Web site, community news, letters, a host of guest writers, and coverage of surfing competitions.

The most distinguishing characteristic of the free paper, however, is that every article is printed in English and Spanish.

That is what sets it apart from The Beach Times, Hayman said, adding she does not view it as competition because of its single-language format.

“We cover progress within communities, restaurant reviews, concerts, book reviews…” she said. “I do (the book reviews) more for residents. When you’re living down here you’re out of touch with what goes on in the United States.”

HAYMAN dabbles in all aspects of the paper’s production, from writing to layout.

She is one of three staff writers, and hers is the only full-time post at the paper – the other staff members are a photographer and a graphic designer.

“I made it so people can use this job to supplement their income. I’m sure when the paper gets a little larger I’ll hire some full time staff,” she said.

Hayman has been in Costa Rica for six years, arriving here after she retired early from a tanking dot-com in San Francisco. She left before it folded and moved to Guanacaste.

“All I knew about Costa Rica was that it had nice waves,” she said.

She began an off-road adventure-tour company called Rica Road Trip that suffered through a slow high season in the wake of the dot-com crashes and the plunging U.S. economy. She abandoned that company when she became pregnant.

A year and a half ago, the Century 21 agency approached her with the idea to start the paper, Hayman said.

“The newspaper has been a wild ride because I had no idea that it was going to grow so fast,” she said. “I certainly hope it portrays the Tamarindo community pretty well.”

At least one of the readers, massage therapist Molly O’Connor, has paid close attention to the paper.

“It’s changed a lot in the last several months,” she said. “The layout has improved, great visuals, the information is good, and she (Hayman) checks out a lot of things and describes them well.”

THE Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute (ICE) predicts its yearly revenues will be cut in half if key sectors of the country’s telecommunications monopoly are opened to private competition under the Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, the daily La República reported.

During CAFTA negotiations, which ended last January, Costa Rica committed to approving a law aimed at modernizing and strengthening ICE by Dec. 31, 2004.

The country also will be required to draft and implement “modern legislation” to regulate the sector by Jan. 1, 2006.

Costa Rica agreed to open Internet services and private data networks to private competition by Jan. 1, 2006. Cellular telephone service must be opened by Jan. 1, 2007 under the agreement, which still must be approved by the U.S. Congress and Costa Rican Legislative Assembly (TT, Jan. 30).

The projections, based on a study conducted by the International Telecommunication Union (UIT), were presented last week to the legislative commission in charge of reforming ICE by Alvaro Retana, Sub-Manager of Telecommunications for ICE.

The report considered several possible scenarios. Under every scenario, it was predicted ICE would lose a substantial portion of its telecom revenues once private firms entered the market.

Under the worst-case scenario – private competition without the reforms to strengthen ICE and make it capable of competing – the institution’s revenues would be reduced to just 34% of what they are now.

Under this scenario, ICE would not be able to generate the revenues needed to invest in improving its services, Retana said.

ICE’s revenues would drop to 49% if an ICE reform bill is approved and the institution remains state-owned.

The best possible results under CAFTA would be obtained if the reform is passed and ICE is opened to partial private investment. Under this scenario, ICE revenues would drop to 58% of current levels, according to the study.

Under this model, ICE would open itself to private investment, but the government would retain majority control.

ICE would be required to conduct major price adjustments to be able to continue to provide universal coverage.

However, the institution could see improved profit margins within five years of the opening of the monopoly, Retana said.

THE common practice by retailers of adjusting the price of products to the nearest multiple of five is costing Costa Ricans an important sum of money each time they go to the grocery store, the daily La Nación reported.

For example, a liter of Dos Pinos brand milk is usually advertised as costing ¢227 ($0.53). However, it really sells for ¢230 ($0.54), since few customers are able to pay the exact amount as a result of the unavailability of ¢1 coins.

The Economy, Industry and Commerce Ministry (MEIC), the institution in charge of protecting the rights of  consumers, says it s aware of consumer complaints about the situation, but admits rounding up or down is permitted under Costa Rican law.

Economy Minister Gi lberto Barrantes recommended consumers shop around and compare price and quality to make the best decision when buying food.

In related news, the price of rice the only product for which the government still sets the prices increased by ¢26 ($0.06) per kilo on Monday.

Two-kilo bags of raw rice will increase from ¢484 ($1.14) to ¢536 ($1.26). One kilo bags of precooked rice will increase from ¢238 ($0.56) to ¢264 ($0.62).