Alajuela, Costa Rica. April 06th 2021. – SMC Ltd., a global contract manufacturer for the medical, diagnostics and pharmaceutical markets with locations in California, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Ohio, United Kingdom, India, and Costa Rica, announced the expansion of its facility in Costa Rica.

Last March, IDB's President, Mauricio Claver-Carone, shared his thoughts on why Costa Rica is the perfect breeding ground for FDI companies to invest and thrive. He spoke during a webinar organized by CINDE and IDB.

• The company has also introduced its ILab, a program designed to help candidates learn English to work with bilingual accounts. 

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 24, 2021. Concentrix Corporation (NASDAQ: CNXC), a leading global provider of customer experience (CX) technology and solutions, announced today the opening in March and April of 2021 of 1,000 new jobs in Costa Rica in sales and technical support for technology and senior property management companies. 
 
During a visit to the company, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado noted that this growth shows that the country is building long-term relations with investors. For him, this new expansion - which represents a significant number of immediate new jobs - is evidence of the confidence large companies have in Costa Rica.
 
“We have a country-commitment to continue promoting the conditions needed to attract investment, and we are pleased to have partners such as Concentrix that boost candidates’ capacities, giving them more hiring opportunities in quality companies. I reaffirm our commitment to continue driving human talent development and bilingualism to take full advantage of the job opportunities created by the knowledge economy,” stated President Alvarado.
 
“Costa Rica is consolidating itself as a strategic site for us, so in 2021 we will be on a constant lookout for staff in several cities. The level of job commitment and the quality customer service we found in this country led us to reinforce the local operation. We decided, at a critical moment in employment, to offer concrete solutions for reactivating the economy and open up jobs with the best market conditions,” affirmed Juan Pablo Guzmán, country leader for Concentrix.
 
As additional support for those wishing to work for Concentrix, the company has designed ILab, a program that helps candidates gain confidence in the use of English, giving them the possibility of being hired for bilingual accounts. Anyone with a B1 level can participate in a three-week training course of four hours a day, at no cost, helping them reach the B2 level required by the company. This initiative, launched in November 2019, has already graduated 90 people, of which 68% have started to work at Concentrix. 
 
Foreign Trade Minister Andrés Valenciano expressed his excitement, stating, “In 2005, Concentrix decided to opt for Costa Rica and its human capital. Today we see with great pride how this company continues to grow, trusting in this country and creating wellbeing. The news of 1,000 new job openings, which will mean formal job opportunities for Costa Ricans, demonstrates that, despite being a small country, Costa Rica has world-class talent.” 
 
Finally, he added, “Moreover, the ILab will be a valuable tool that will help train employees in English. Ongoing learning is essential for us to be able to tackle the challenges of the 4.0 revolution. It enables us to stay at the forefront in topics of interest, grow as individuals, and continue contributing to society. My sincerest congratulations and gratitude for continuing to choose our country.”
 
Eric Scharf, president of CINDE’s Board of Directors, commented, “Costa Rica has become the quintessential strategic partner for companies seeking technological convergence environments that answer to the needs of industry 4.0. Concentrix is an example of this and today, with 1,000 more jobs added to its local operation, it confirms that Costa Rican human talent has the necessary resilience to respond to the new challenges faced by companies. In Costa Rica, 134,000 Costa Rican jobs depend on multinational companies such as Concentrix.”

In addition to the 1,000 new jobs, Concentrix is also seeking people for professional and executive positions such as:

• Hires will be working from home. 
• Jobs will be offered during the company’s virtual fair this week.

• CINDE has identified sectors with higher foreign direct investment potential in each of the regions comprising the 20 cantons with which it has been working since 2016.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021. San Jose, Costa Rica. Five years ago, CINDE launched a project to promote investment outside the greater metropolitan area (GMA) in 20 Costa Rican cantons. At that time, 2,105 people were working in those areas in multinational companies supported by CINDE. Today that figure surpasses 3,660. The number has grown by 15% every year, and the goal is to keep it growing. 
 
To do so, CINDE has identified sectors with higher foreign direct investment (FDI) potential in each of the six regions comprising the 20 cantons. The next step will be customized investment proposals based on existing conditions in the territories and opportunities identified with multinational firms. 
 
That is one of the measures CINDE will implement in its strategy to attract more FDI outside the GMA, which will go together with its direct work with the 20 communities to learn the results of an individual in-depth study for each.  
 
As Yahaira Barquero, CINDE´s Lead of Investment Promotion in Rising Cities, explained, “The six regions outside the GMA combine the formula for driving Costa Rica’s sustainable productivity and smart growth based on three strategic pillars: people, planet, and prosperity. CINDE is betting on developing regional value propositions as a tool for boosting investment outside the Costa Rican GMA; the idea is to continue creating more jobs and opportunities in those areas.”
 
The measures were announced today within the framework of the virtual annual meeting of communities outside the GMA that CINDE organizes every year with the 20 participating cantons: Buenos Aires, Corredores, Osa, Coto Brus, Golfito, Pérez Zeledón, Siquirres, Pococí, Limón, Turrialba, San Carlos, Grecia, Sarchí, Naranjo, Palmares, San Ramón, Puntarenas, Orotina, Liberia, and Carrillo.
 
According to Foreign Trade Minister Andrés Valenciano, “With the support of CINDE and the regional PROCOMER offices, a coordinated, continuous effort is being made with the different communities outside the GMA. The goal is to improve their competitiveness so that more and more companies can find optimum conditions in these places for investing and growing. Little by little, we have started to see the fruits of this effort. For instance, the latest data show that jobs created by FDI companies outside the GMA have grown at an average annual rate of 15% in the last five years.” 
 
He added, moreover, that “for the foreign trade sector, development in areas outside the GMA is an essential task, and we know there is still much work to be done. Count on our support so we can continue to create the best conditions in these territories, which will result in jobs, opportunities, development, and wellbeing for all!”
 
Other action areas, added Barquero, include promoting streamlined procedures and regulatory improvement outside the GMA so that more and more cantons sign on to the One-stop Investment project (Ventanilla Única de Inversión, or VUI) led by PROCOMER. 
 
Likewise, CINDE will develop regional webinars as training and skill-building tools for decision-makers in each community. Experts will participate in addressing the topics of interest for the different areas.  
 
Employment Outside the GMA in Figures

• Roche Services & Solutions continues to ramp up its People Support Solutions (strategic human resource services), along with other areas.
• The company is offering 125 new positions for bilingual and trilingual professionals.
• Roche continues its expansion by creating high-added-value positions.

• Available vacancies in technical areas but also in human resources and finance. 
• One-half of the positions are related to assembly and testing operations and are forecast to start-up in the second half of the year.

*Press release published by Intel Costa Rica. 

Costa Rica. March 11, 2021 – Bill Gosling Outsourcing is a technology-focused global Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) provider that specializes in customer experience (CX) solutions, and they are looking to expand Costa Rica operations with over 200 new jobs.

Bill Gosling launched their first site in Costa Rica in September of 2019 and are currently working on launching their second site just 18 months later. “Our Clients have been so pleased with the quality of service and our team that we are ready to expand within the country already. The launch of the second site validates our initial reasons for choosing Costa Rica as the start of our LATAM expansion,” said Dave Rae, CEO of Bill Gosling Outsourcing.

Carlos Alvarado, President of the Republic, commented that “the expansion of a company as established as Bill Gosling offers further confirmation that multinational companies view Costa Rica as a strategic ally in achieving their goals.”

President Alvarado highlighted all the work being done to train Costa Rica’s human talent to take advantage of these excellent employment opportunities; as an example, he cited the new INA Law signed in January, which is designed to prepare Costa Ricans for greater professional opportunities to enter the labor market, thus influencing the country’s competitiveness, productivity, and innovation.

“2020 was challenging for everyone, but with the strength, agility, and mutual commitment with our clients, we were able to navigate through and continue to provide certainty of supply. Thanks to our team’s strength and dedication, we launched new relationships and continued to operate on trust and transparency. This paved the way to launching our second nearshore site,” added Kenny Johnston, President of Bill Gosling Outsourcing.

Andrés Valenciano, Minister of Foreign Trade, pointed out, “this newest expansion of the Bill Gosling company confirms, once again, that we are headed in the right direction with our nation’s value proposal, based on the three Ps: planet, people, and prosperity. This is a leading company in the service sector and has become a strategic ally for our country; its decision to reinvest in Costa Rica reflects our favorable business platform, characterized by a highly competitive environment and highly qualified human resources. Today, we celebrate Bill Gosling’s sustained commitment to Costa Rica in choosing our country as its ally in continued growth and thereby generating 200 new formal employment opportunities for Costa Ricans.”

Currently, the second site is under construction but will be ready for operations by mid-May this year, with some new Clients being serviced out of that site. “Since our expansion into Costa Rica, we have had great success in building our company culture within the team. There is high engagement among the staff globally, regionally, and locally within our community in Belén. We are now ready to grow our team and are looking for applicants who are fluent in English with strong social skills, enthusiasm, and are eager to learn.” – David Clements, VP of Operations at Bill Gosling Outsourcing.

With nine sites across North America, the UK, the Philippines, and Costa Rica, Bill Gosling provides live agent support via voice, chat, email, and other digital solutions in various languages.

Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE, commented, “According to the World Economic Forum, Costa Rica is the leader in human capital in Latin America. Multinational companies highly value our productivity and human talent. CINDE’s data shows that in the services sector from 2005 to 2019, productivity per employee, as measured by exports per capita, grew 47% – reaching USD $51,000 in 2019. We are proud of this key aspect, which drives more reinvestments in our country, as is the case with Bill Gosling Outsourcing. This is important news, especially given its announcement less than two years after having opened Costa Rican operations.”

The two sites will be near each other, both located within the El Cafetal Corporate Centre, approximately 15 minutes away from the San Jose International airport. This expansion will bring a combined 500 seat capacity across both sites with additional remote working capabilities for multi-lingual Customer Services positions. 

Those interested in applying, please visit: www.billgosling.com/careers

About Bill Gosling Outsourcing
Founded in Canada in 1955, Bill Gosling Outsourcing (BGO) provides outsourcing services for clients throughout North America, the UK, the Philippines, and Costa Rica.  Services include Customer Service/Support, Accounts Receivable Management, Customer Sales and Acquisitions, and Call Center Technology/Business Process Outsourcing.  With the opening of a second Costa Rican site, this takes the company to a total of 10 sites supporting 2,800 seats. 

This expansion is supported by Bill Gosling’s new private equity partner,Owner Resource Group, who joined the management team led by David Rae (CEO) and Kenny Johnston (President) to invest in growth and to pursue strategic acquisitions that expand service offerings to customers. 

Within the context of International Women's Day, today we highlight five examples of how Costa Rica has encouraged greater female participation in industry 4.0. This is key in generating greater employability and opportunities for this population, which has been the most affected in the workplace, throughout the pandemic.

• Markus Sageder to lead Global Software Company’s new Latin America Hub.

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 5, 2021 – San Francisco Bay Area-based software company Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced today the official opening of a new Autodesk office for the Latin America region, based in San Jose, Costa Rica. Markus Sageder will serve as the site lead to a cohort of employees largely comprised of inside sales professionals, all working virtually for now to ensure the team’s ongoing health and safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hub office in Costa Rica is where inside sales operations and other teams will come together to drive growth across the Americas, with a focus on the Latin America region. An established member of the Autodesk team and seasoned leader within the sales industry, Sageder joined Autodesk over four years ago and was one of the first 50 people hired to open the company’s office in Barcelona, Spain.

“Given Markus’ deep knowledge of Autodesk’s business and customer needs and being fluent in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German), I’m confident he has what it takes to successfully build our Costa Rica office. We selected Costa Rica for our Latin America hub because of its global business environment and talent pool, ability to support multiple Americas languages, and its vibrant multicultural capital which offers a great quality of life for our employees,” said Morgan Kirkland, Senior Director in Autodesk’s Americas sales organization.