Environmental and Social Management Framework for the Costa Rica Telecommunications Sector Modernization Project
General socioeconomic baseline in Costa Rica
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- Figure 4.9 Political Map of Costa
- Figure 4.10 Distribution of Population in Urban and Rural Areas
- 4.2.3Indigenous Communities
- Figure 4.12 Indigenous Reserves in Costa Rica
- 4.2.4Economy in Costa Rica
- 4.2.5Telecommunication infrastructure
- 4.2.6Other infrastructure
4.2General socioeconomic baseline in Costa Rica4.2.1Political DivisionsCosta Rica is comprised of seven provinces (provincias); Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Limon, Puntarenas, and San Jose; these are sub-divided in 83 cantons (cantons) and 463 districts (distritos). See Figure 4.9. Figure 4.9 Political Map of Costa
Source: geology.com/world/costa-rica-map.gif 4.2.2PopulationCosta Rica has a population of 4,401,849 (National Institute of Statistics and Census, INEC, Costa Rica, July 2007). The share of urban and rural population was estimated at 58% and 42% respectively for the year 2000 (INEC, 2000) and 62% and 38% respectively in 2005 (MSN Encarta). The major cities are San José, the capital, with an estimated population in 2002 of 328,293; Alajuela; Cartago; Puntarenas and Puerto Limón. The cities of San José, Alajuela, and Cartago are located on the central plateau, which concentrates 63% of the total population of Costa Rica. See Figures 4.10 and 4.11. Figure 4.10 Distribution of Population in Urban and Rural Areas
Source: Costa Rica: Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2000 (www.inec.go.cr) Figure 4.11 Distribution of Population per region
Source: Costa Rica: Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2000 The regions of interest for this project are mainly rural areas, in particular along the Atlantic Coast, the Northern part of the Central Valley, and the Southern part of the country. 4.2.3Indigenous CommunitiesVarious sources of information provide different figures for the indigenous populations in Costa Rica. The information presented hereafter has been gathered from the LCR Knowledge Base of the World Bank, through the InfoClient (http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/LAC/LACInfoClient.nsf). There eight Indigenous Communities in Costa Rica, with approximately 27,047 people living in such communities; and a total population of 63,876 living in and out of the communities (Solano Salazar, 2001:13). Twenty-two indigenous reserves were created in 1977, giving the indigenous groups the right to stay in self-governed communities (without granting them the land titles). Figure 1.12 provides the location and names of the 22 indigenous reserves. Figure 4.12 Indigenous Reserves in Costa Rica
Source: http://www.horizontes.com/es/reservas-indigenas-de-costa-rica.html 4.2.4Economy in Costa RicaThe Costa Rican economy grew at nearly 5% in 2006. Costa Rica has a per capita income of about USD 5,100, and an unemployment rate of 6.6%. The prime industries in Costa Rica’s economy are agriculture, electronics, pharmaceuticals, financial outsourcing, software development, and ecotourism. The tourism industry brings in annual revenue of USD 1.7 billion, i.e. approximately 8% of total national income (based on the GDP for 2006, US Department of State). Travel and tourism in Costa Rica in 2007 is expected to generate USD 4.8 billion of economic activity (Total Demand). Costa Rica's travel and tourism economy (direct and indirect impact) in 2007 is expected to account for 15.1% of GDP and 278,000 jobs (14.7% of total employment). This industry is expected to grow 4.0% in 2007 and by 4.6% per annum, in real terms, between 2008 and 2017 (World Travel and Tourism Council, http://www.wttc.travel/bin/pdf/temp/costarica.html). The government adopts a proactive approach towards the environment and ecotourism. It counts with numerous laws and policies to conserve its biodiversity, natural habitat and landscape. 4.2.5Telecommunication infrastructureTelecommunication infrastructure is highly developed in the urban areas in Costa Rica, especially in the Central Valley, and scarce in the rural areas (International Telecommunication Union; and http://devdata.worldbank.org/ict/cri_ict.pdf). Costa Rica displays a strong performance in terms of fixed line teledensity, which stands today at about 32.6%, up from 23.5% in 2000. Nevertheless, with regards to mobile telephony and high speed Internet services, the country’s level of development is lower than its peers. Despite increasing its number of mobile lines from 3 per 100 inhabitants in 1998 to 26.5 by September 2005, Costa Rica still lags behind other comparable countries, such as Chile (70.7), Ireland (100.5) and even Panama (48.8). Moreover, a simple regression analysis of infrastructure outcomes and GDP per capita shows that Costa Rica’s fixed teledensity was 19.3 percent higher than expected for a country with Costa Rica’s GDP per capita, but that mobile teledensity was 60.8 percent lower. Costa Rica has experienced a significant increase in the use of Internet and personal computers over the last decade, performing better than comparator countries. In 2004, Costa Rica had the highest density in the use of Internet among regional economies (23.5 users per 100 inhabitants, which represent almost a tenfold increase since 1998). However, the availability in Costa Rica of more advanced services such as broadband Internet is extremely limited, and well below that in peer economies. In 2004 there were only 2.3 broadband subscribers per every 1,000 Costa Ricans. This is an extremely low level of broadband penetration, compared to countries such as Chile (22 per 1000 inhabitants), Lithuania (13.7 per 1000 inhabitants), or S. Korea, with an impressive rate of 233 subscribers per 1000 inhabitants. See Annex 4, Map 1 Topography of Costa Rica, for the location of cell towers in Costa Rica. 4.2.6Other infrastructureRoads total 35,330 km (21,752 miles), 680 km (425 miles) of which form a portion of the Inter-American Highway. San José is linked by road with the cities of the surrounding plateau region. Railroad lines in Costa Rica were shut down indefinitely in the early 1990’s after having been severely damaged by an earthquake. Several domestic airlines provide service within the country. Juan Santamaría Airport, which is located near San José, is served by the Costa Rican national airline and several foreign airlines (MSN Encarta). Directory: curated curated -> Concept stage curated -> Concept stage curated -> Republic of Côte d'Ivoire Urbanization Review curated -> Report No: aus11011 Central America curated -> Report No. 94474-pk fiscal Disaster Risk Assessment Options for Consideration curated -> Environment Impact Assessment For Jiangxi Shangrao Sanqingshan Airport Beijing Guohuantiandi Environmental Technology Development Center. Ltd. Oct. 2012 Content curated -> Growth through Innovation An Industrial Strategy for Shanghai By Shahid Yusuf Kaoru Nabeshima April 22nd, 2009 curated -> Report No: 70178. People's Republic of China curated -> Making Nutrition Policy Central to Development Understanding the Political and Institutional Conditions for Policy Change Case Study of the Political Economy of Nutrition Policies in Ethiopia Prepared By Download 0.6 Mb. Share with your friends:
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