CATCH 22:Bureaucracy versus entrepreneurs

A CURRENT example of   "Catch 22" in action is underlined by a  report on bureaucracy in Costa Rica.

Bureaucrats do not understand or want to understand about innovation, says CentralAmericaData, because their privileges are always anchored in the past that they know and never in the future.

In Costa Rica you cannot register a vehicle manufactured in the country because the Single Customs Declaration required under the rules does not exist.

An article in Elfinancierocr.com describes the vicissitudes of a Costa Rican entrepreneur who has who developed an electric vehicle and is now looking for funding to produce it.

"Jesse Blenn is an entrepreneur, mechanic and pilot, foreigner by birth but tico by heart. For several years he has been attempting to start up a company which to many people sounded like a joke in a country such as Costa Rica. 

"But his current drama is that if he manages to raise the money to make his car, he could not put it into circulation. Why? Because in order to be able to drive on the streets every vehicle needs a registration certificate (road tax paid, technical review carried out, etc.) and to obtain this permission it first needs to be registered in the National Registry.

"Here is the first obstacle. The Registry asks for the Single Customs Declaration form (DUA), a document that indicates the value of the vehicle and which is created in a customs office. However if Blenn manufactures the vehicle it will not go through customs because it is not arriving from abroad."