Econ- Socioeconomic Challenges Facing CR

Socioeconomic Challenges Facing Costa Rica in 2015

One of the biggest socioeconomic challenges that will be facing Costa Rica in the next five years is the growth of the ecotourism industry. Costa Rica is transitioning from an agricultural economy to a service based economy and ecotourism is considered a service. While there are many positive affects of the ecotourism industry, there are also many negative affects. Balancing this will be a huge challenge. Some of the plusses include more jobs, awareness of environmental issues, benefits to citizens and overall revenue. However, the negative affects are the huge influx of tourists. The natural areas will not be able to sustain that much traffic on a daily basis and will begin to degenerate.
A second challenge is the huge national debt. Costa Rica has a very high internal and external debt. Costa Rica had 49.3% public debt as a percent of GDP in 2009. It is the 47th of all countries for debt according to the CIA factbook’s List of National Debt by Country.
A third socioeconomic problem that Costa Rica faces within the next five years is Immigration. Because Costa Rica has such a low poverty rate, people from a few other Latin American countries have started immigrating to CR. Nicaragua and Colombia are the two main countries from where people are immigrating. There is much controversy surrounding the influx of Nicaraguan immigrants since many companies appreciate the cheap labor force, though most Costa Ricans disapprove of it.