According to the local Chamber of Commerce, 350 businesses closed their doors in the canton of San Carlos, Alajuela, 150 in Ciudad Quesada alone, in the past 12 months.
Marco Solis, president of the organization explained that the economic situation the country is going through, is added to the canton’s own factors that generate what they already call a commercial crisis.
“Here there are several issues, one is that there are still entrepreneurs who do not want to pay attention to the major changes in the tax reform, another issue is that there are still shops that have not been modernized for example on social networks and is then there is the informal economy and unemployment,” he said.
The concern has lead merchants to join together and come up with proposals to survive. One of the topics of analysis is the high cost of the rents.
“The economy in San Carlos is fragile, I have been here for 20 years, I had not seen it so dangerous and it is my obligation as mayor to make the warning and the call to unite to see what we are doing because this is very difficult,” said Alfredo Córdoba, mayor of San Carlos.
The mayor expressed his concern about the economic recession of the canton that would be aggravated by the application of Value Added Tax (VAT) that goes into effect on July 1.
The call by Córdoba includes the legislators, local chambers of commerce, and businessmen of the canton to propose reactivation initiatives.
Source: Sancarlosdigital.com
