Japan will give a loan of us $138.45 million to Costa Rica to build a hydroelectric power plant. The foreign ministers of both the countries recently signed an agreement to this effect. The 25-year loan with an annual interest rate of 2.2 per cent will be used for constructing a power plant, with a capacity of 128 megawatts.

"The loan is very important to Costa Rica. We are an environmentally conscious community trying to produce all our power from clean sources such as water and wind energy,' said Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echeverria, the country's president.