Appeared in The Nation, 03 August 2009. RULE IS RESPONDING. Velia Govaere veliagov racsa.co.cr Deputy Minister of Economy cumplio The French Revolution 220 years. In Costa Rica, the National Meeting on Employment was held that day. It was a prescient coincidence that the term framework in Costa Rica of the modern paradigm of governance: the construction of public policies from below. Business and civil society came together with ministries and decentralized authorities to expose and sue, to listen and respond to the pressing issue of how to defend and promote employment. Public policy should always be responses to social demands. Revolutions in communication and culture and mass access to information of public affairs are the structural basis for public policies are constructed from the dialogue. Urgent dialogue. Gone are the days of digital gestures on the day of voting and then indifference conformist. But the Costa Ricans are accustomed to the stereotypical view of leaders who lead from above and from below protesting citizens. Is there something more urgent dialogue to defend the livelihood basis of all ‘in any case clear, the confrontation can neither defend nor create jobs. Neither diagnostic nor premises solutions were unanimously accepted. The Union of Chambers lament a loss of tens of thousands of jobs, while the Costa Rican Social Security showed that the number of policyholders had fallen just a little more than a thousand workers. Both figures are not necessarily contradictory but complementary visions from different perspectives. Those who have lost their jobs, they value their families continue to ensure self-employed and many are working when in fact they are improvising any economic activity to bring sustenance to their families. The axis of the proposals were rich and varied. Its centerpiece was the need to improve the business climate and business environment. Business and employment are two sides of the same currency in Costa Rica. Proposed tax changes, increased liquidity, decreased costs of financial intermediation joined academic challenges and the expectations of legislation allowing labor flexibility, and facilitate the attraction of new foreign investment. Interesting twist of lobbying where the government increasingly assumes a role of intermediary citizen suits against the legislature and not the other way around, as usual be the case. The government urged employers to show solidarity with its workers defend their jobs in these lean times, even at the expense of lower profits, because the urge to remember how to harness the efforts of its employees during the fat years. In all line ministries, I am an enabling environment to support, whenever possible and desirable, all the demands of social sectors and private enterprise. Reversal of priorities. At no time was our model for development. But the pulse of the times’m in for a reversal of priorities. Economic liberalization in Costa Rica should be complemented by strengthening their capacities to protect trade, industrial support and protection of consumers. The time is ripe to give muscle to strengthen the quality and safety of the products we consume. The crisis warns that the pendulum of national history is turning toward a consolidation of production with value-added chains, which necessarily involves the attraction of new investments that create jobs and support for domestic industry, especially the small and medium enterprises. Still resonates in the atmosphere these voices, when the natural tendency of our character tempts us to save your sound files.