Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica Wang Xiaoyuan set on Thursday the first stone of the new National Stadium of Costa Rica, which is a donation by China.

Costa Rican sports authorities, Costa Rican cabinet Ministers, Peruvian outstanding sportsmen and special guests attended the ceremony.

The new stadium will be located in the same place of the old one, which was 80 years and it was demolished last year; it will have a capacity of 35,000.

China invested in the new stadium 83 million U.S. dollars, and according to the responsible ones of the project it is estimated it will be ready in 23 months.

"Thanks to the enormous generosity of the Chinese people, this dream will be possible in some months. Today we set the first stone of a stadium equal to the passion of our people; a stadium that will be the heart of a country, in the middle of the city," Arias said.

The new building will have the offices of the 32 federations of the different sports played in the county, an athletics trail and a sports museum.

This new stadium is part of the cooperation agreements that China and Costa Rica signed after the reset of their diplomatic ties in 2007.

Source: Xinhua