Subscribe via E-Mail

Get all of our news delivered fresh to your inbox every morning! Just tell us your name and where to send it using the form below.

PS – We hate spam too. We don’t sell or share our list with anyone, and we never send commercial email.




luxe
Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Environmental regulator grants permits for Moin Container Terminal

Email this page

December 18th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) Costa Rica’s environmental regulator known as SETENA confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it has issued the necessary permits to allow the Dutch firm APM Terminals to begin construction of the Moin Container Terminal.

 

“[The permits] are granted on the understanding that the project developer will comply fully and thoroughly with all regulations and current technical, legal, and environmental standards in the country,” SETENA said in a statement.

 

The permits were granted for a period of two years to allow construction to begin.  Both the State and APM Terminals expected construction to begin in January.

 

Yesterday’s decision by SETENA could be the final hurdle for the project, which has been delayed for two years while facing challenges in the Constitutional Court by the public dockworkers’ union known as SINTRAJAP.

 

SINTRAJAP had argued that the concession would create an illegal monopoly, but the Constitutional Court dismissed the claim.

 

The union, for its part, announced that it is preparing an appeal against the environmental regulator’s Wednesday decision.

 

Opposition to the project led to 16 days of strikes by Caribbean dockworkers in late October and early November.

 

APM Terminals obtained the concession to build and operate the port in 2011.

 

The initial concession is for 33 years, with an initial investment of at least $1 billion and the creation of some 400 jobs.

 

The new facilities, which include an 80-acre artificial island, would be able to accommodate modern “Panamax” class container vessels of up to 13,500 containers, some five times larger than those that can be serviced in the country presently.

 

President Luis Guillermo Solis has expressed his support for the project.

costa rica news

ATTENTION: If you are seeing this message,


Advertisement


Get our news delivered fresh to your inbox every morning.

Click here to subscribe to our email list. We hate spam too and never send commercial email.

Like us on Facebook and receive our news in your timeline

  • prdatki

    Good for the people of CR,now build it and fire all of the dock workers and hire new people and get rid of the Union.

    • mthorman

      1. Unions were created as a response to inhumane working conditions and exploitation. They are needed as a counter-balance to powerful employer interests.
      2. Every bureaucracy – whether business, government, or union – has flaws.
      3. The people of Costa Rica have a right to demand the best environmental protection possible. We must demand a full and complete environmental assessment independent of those existing bureaucracies holding their own special interests in the outcome.

  • expatin paradise

    I have problems with the dockworkers’ union and have no doubt that their concerns have nothing to do with the environment, but I would like to see the results of an environmental study performed by someone who represents environmentalists and not government The government has wanted this project from its inception, so a study by an agency of that same government is suspect at best.

Popular Content