Chinchilla: "Not Exactly a Dry Canal"

President Laura Chillchilla, as she left China on her Far East tour, backed away from the nomenclature the press uses for the linking of existing roads between the Caribbean port of Limon with northwestern Costa Rica.



The subject came up in her meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao for China to provide aid in financing the route. Chinchilla says the term is "confusing" and probably another one should label the route.

In an exclusive interview with La Nacion, she said the route does not mean building a separate port in northwestern Costa Rica but rather is a "logistical" link for the country.

Versions of the inter-ocean "dry canal" have been around since the 1970s. The original idea was to link the docks at Limon on the east with the Pacific port of Puntarenas so cargo containers could be offloaded from ships plying one ocean, trucked to the opposing port and hoisted aboard ships there.

But Chinchilla made it clear what she had in mind was not an alternative to the Panama Canal but a more national -- not international -- solution. It was to provide a more complete, comprehensive infrastructure nationally.

The President left the door open for later presidents to build a port, perhaps at Santa Elena Bay, although she considers that as a promotion more for tourism than for cargo.

Her foreign minister, Enrique Castillo, has said the Chinese may lend half of the costs on soft terms to finance the ocean-to-ocean road links. Chinchilla expressed hope that negotiations would start soon to that end.

After China, the President was off to South Korea, with which this country has had 50 trouble-free years of diplomatic relations. She made no secret that her purpose was to promote foreign investment and trade with her country, a role she has capably performed before in other areas and which she seems to relish.

While in Seoul, she was awarded an honorary degree at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, a prestigious institution that teaches no fewer than 45 different languages to students from all over the globe.

At the university she tooted the horn of the country in noting that 7% of the GDP was devoted to education. She also underscored the parallel courses of the two nations in seeking green development.

By Rod Hughes, Fijatevos.com