Comparison Case
Analysis Paper
Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a Latin American Country with nearly 5 % GDP growth. The economic
growth here is far better than many Latin American countries. The infrastructure
was improved by the 1.2 billion dollars loan from USA. Though their main source
of income is agriculture exports, the Costa Ricans are also going into
industries like electronics, tourism, livestock, coffee, textiles and clothing.
Costa Rica is a democratic country with a president and two vice presidents.
They are elected by direct popular votes for four years term. Costa Rica gained
independence from Spain in 1821. This country is situated in southern Central
America with an area of 51,000 sq. km. The estimated population is 4.1 million
with a population growth rate of 1.65%. The population is mainly from Spanish
origin. With a very large middle class, one out of five families are living in
poverty.
It has a mixed population but the majority is of whites and mestizos-people who
are about 96% of the total population are living here. The mestisoz are the
Spanish and Native American ancestors. The percentage of black Jamaican origin
is 3% while the rest are Amerindian, Chinese and other ethnic groups. The state
religion is Roman Catholicism and the government does not interfere in the
religion of any of its citizens.
The US and Costa Rica enjoy a very friendly trade relationship. During the
crisis in Central America in 1980s, US provided full support to Costa Rica. The
US accounts for over half of Costa Rica’s imports, exports, tourism and over two
thirds of its foreign investment. As many as 36,000 American private citizens
reside in Costa Rica and an estimated 600,000 Americans visit Costa Rica
annually. US have provided technical assistance for decades in the areas of
environmental education, management, small business development and many other
fields. USAID has completed a $9 million project to support refugees of
Hurricane Mitch of Costa Rica between 2000-2001.
Ecuador
Ecuador is located on the northwestern coast of South America and it has the
status of being the smallest country in the region. Basically the economy of
Ecuador depends on agricultural sector and their main exports are cocoa, coffee
and banana. After the discovery of oil in 1970, a boom in their economy occurred
but from 1982 to 1987 a slow down in the economy growth happened. In the mean
time the collapse of world oil prices in 1986 affected the revenue of Ecuador
and it was reduced to half. Another disaster in the shape of an earthquake
destroyed a large stretch of Ecuador’s pipeline. Ecuador experience a hard time
from 1988 to 1992. Now the economy of Ecuador is diversified where the private
and public sectors are playing an important role to uplift the economy of the
country. The economic indicator of Ecuador has improved substantially by 2001.
Now the GDP growth has reached 5% and the inflation rate has gone down to 30%.
The huge population of 12,879,000 is split up into different
gender-distribution. There are 55% Metizo, 25% Amerindian, 10% White, 9% Black
and 1% other ethnic groups. With a population growth of 1.93%, the birth rate is
24.04 per 1,000. Almost 95% of the population follows Roman Catholic religion.
The bilateral relationship between Ecuador and United States is remarkable. The
US is also the main trade partner of Ecuador. From 31 to 38% of goods are
imported and exported between the two countries. These good enjoy duty free
access to the US markets.
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