• 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.

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.

• Costa Ricans are part of the 8.4% of the global population with the best democracies.

How has the pandemic affected democracy in 165 countries? The Economist Intelligence Unit posed this question in its 13th edition of the Democracy Index (2020). In Costa Rica, the answer was positive, being 2020 the year with the best score: 8.16 on a scale of 1 to 10.

• The Women in Engineering Projects in Community Service is led by CINDE with the Arizona State University, the United States Embassy in Costa Rica, and the Ministry of Education.
• Seventy-eight students and eight teachers were part of the pilot plan in zones like Sixaola, Nicoya, Grecia, and Turrialba.

San José, Costa Rica. January 26, 2021. By 2030, the world will have a greater demand for knowledge skills such as creativity, critical thinking, decision-making, and complex data processing; this need will increase 19% in the United States and 14% in Europe, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute.

• The company will produce dehydrated pineapple in the Caribbean side of Costa Rica (GMA) to export it to Mexico.
• Instantia invested US$350,000 in the last month and a half.

San José, Costa Rica. January 21, 2021. The multinational company in the light manufacturing and food industry sector, Instantia, will establish a new plant in Roxana de Pococí, at the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, where it will produce dehydrated pineapple for export.

The international magazine, The European, interviewed CINDE, recently, on the organization’s gender equality strategy in Costa Rica.

“If we are to advance towards gender equality, a combination of strategic thinking and cultural awareness is essential. No organization understands this better than the Costa rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE)”, says the magazine.

Read the interview on pages 24-26: https://bit.ly/3hL3N1z

• Global Software Company to Hire Sales Talent to Propel Long-Term Regional Growth

San Jose, Costa Rica, Dec. 16, 2020 – San Francisco Bay Area-based software company Autodesk, Inc.(NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced plans to open a Costa Rica-based office in support of business across the Americas. 

• CINDE, Costa Rica's Investment Promotion Agency, reported 81 investment projects from 11 different countries during the pandemic.
• Multinationals in the country generated 19.806 new jobs, an 18% increase from the previous year.
• Costa Rica consolidates its position as a strategic ally for Nearshoring: Intel & Microvention are two recent examples of this stance.

San José, Costa Rica. December 15, 2020. CINDE – The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency- reported a record of 81 confirmed projects during 2020, 26 of which are new companies that selected Costa Rica for their Operations. Other 55 investment projects diversified current operations in the country with new processes or business lines as well as expansions.

Of the 26 new entries, 14 of them came from non-traditional origins representing 11 different countries such as Japan, Denmark, France, Germany, India, UK, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Among these is German-based ADMEDES, one of the world's leading contract manufacturers of auto-expandable nitinol (nickel and titanium) components used in the medical devices industries. The company selected Cartago, Costa Rica as their third geographic operation, which will add to its two centers in Germany and another in the USA.

Intel is another example with an investment of US$350 million in Costa Rica to revamp testing and assembly operations, which adds to its other three divisions in the country, including its Mega Lab, The Research and Development (R&D) Center, and its Global Services Center, all adding 2,000 people.

Eric Scharf, Chairman of the Board of Directors at CINDE, highlighted that these results, amid the pandemic, are a clear signal of Costa Rica's response and resilience and an excellent coordinated effort between the government, companies, and their employees to ensure business continuity.

“Within days, 98% of services companies in the country with over 70.000 people were 100% working from home. Manufacturing companies identified all critical on-site jobs which continued to operate under the strictest sanitary protocols, prioritizing the wellbeing of the people. Assurance of this business continuity with a clear rule of law and openness to trade demonstrated multinationals' trust in Costa Rica as their strategic partner for the new nearshoring," added Mr. Scharf.

On that line, Jorge Sequeira, CINDE's Managing Director added, “Over the years, Costa Rica has been the nearshoring site per excellence. This year, the pandemic reaffirmed Costa Rica's position. We had several expansion projects in manufacturing, driven by a supply optimization strategy. The results we had in 2020 reflect a high level of trust by multinationals in our country, where we were able to demonstrate strong response, resilience, and reinvention of businesses but more so, demonstrate our people's capacity."