City Nation Place awards country brand "Esencial Costa Rica" the prize for best in the world in the category of use of design 2022

• The Costa Rican biometric passport, implemented in 2021, has been awarded the prize for best use of brand design.

LONDON, Nov. 14, 2022/PRNewswire/ -- The recent edition of the City Nation Place Awards 2022 – an international forum that celebrates and highlights the work of country brands in categories such as communication, marketing, and social networks on a global scale – recognized the country brand Esencial Costa Rica as the winner in the category "Best use of Design".

In the category of best use of design, the project that obtained the highest rating from this international forum was the development of the Costa Rican biometric passport created in 2021. In this category, Esencial Costa Rica was nominated along with other brands such as Australia, India, Scotland, and the Tower Hamlets district of London, England.

The design of the new passport - implemented in 2022 - incorporates technology with a person's biometric data such as facial features, fingerprints, and personal information. Additionally, the heart of Costa Rica is embedded in each of its pages, since it was designed - for the first time - by Costa Rican hands and expounds on four themes representative of the national identity that can be seen in its inside pages:

• Biodiversity: reflected in an "underwater paradise" inspired by Cocos Island, highlights elements such as the hammerhead shark, waves, turtles, corals, butterflies, and sloths.
• Renewable energy: incorporating the area of the Arenal Volcano that was chosen to highlight the country's wealth in renewable energy sources since it generates geothermal, wind, and hydroelectric energy. It was also complemented with the image of animals of the area.
• Education and Peace: showing our history of peace, through the image of the Act and the Torch of Central American Freedom, and the importance of education for Costa Ricans, hence the image of books, schools, and of course the "Pura Vida" (the simple life) that characterizes us all.
• Talent: highlighting the essence of Costa Ricans who are talented by nature, evidenced by the cart, pre-Columbian stone spheres, sculptures, Boruca masks, marimba, calypso, and even the native Creole swing.

"Apart from being a very important technological innovation, the biometric passport represents an inter-institutional effort carried out in conjunction with the Directorate of Migration and Immigration that shows the world the essence of our country through a modern design based on four themes that are fundamental to the international positioning of Costa Rica. In its pages, we tell the world that we are home to 6.5% of the world's biodiversity, that we use 99% renewable energy, that we allocate 8% of our GDP to education, and that our talent is present in each person who contributes to the country from different walks of life,¨ stated Pedro Beirute Manager of PROCOMER and President of the Inter-institutional Country Brand Committee.

"We are very proud to have won first place in this City Nation Place category and that passport applications have increased by 400% in this year alone; this recognition engages us to continue working to present to the world the quality of our products and services," said Mr. Beirute.

For his part, Jorge Sequeira, general director of CINDE, stated: "We are proud of the road traveled and the contribution that Esencial Costa Rica has made to the positioning of our country in key sectors of development and the Costa Rican economy."

Additionally, the Esencial Costa Rica brand was nominated, among the most outstanding finalist brands, for Best Use of Data for the project "Integrating Data For Country Brand Performance Measurement." In this category, Esencial Costa Rica shared the nomination with Cape Town (South Africa), Denver (United States), Houston (United States), Indiana (United States), Long Island (United States), and Madeira Island (Portugal).

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SOURCE Essential COSTA RICA