Admit it. How many times have you thought Costa Rica was backwards in the way they do things and wished they would automate things a bit more?

I found a website today, Gobierno Digital (Digital Government) that is a portal to more than 300 online services from more than 60 government and local institutions. The one downside is it’s only in Spanish. (But hello. It is a country whose language is Spanish. What did you expect?)

The amount of information and services on this site can be overwhelming. Among the many are:

• List of occupations and minimum salaries
• Information about obtaining residency
• Check your utility bills online
• Link to the Yellow Pages online directory
• Check for parking tickets
• Find out how much your marchamo (car registration) is
• Information about conservation and environment issues
• Links to local municipality sites
• School and University information
• List of government jobs available
• Maps and bus schedules
• Legal information
• Financing information

And the list goes on. Having this kind of a central portal for services and information is a huge start for the country. I really hope that we’ll see more online services coming in the near future. But in the meantime, you’ll be amazed at how much data is on this site and how well organized it is.
Check it out!