• 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. 

*Article originally published at https://bit.ly/2XZh1Pm / Partner content from CINDE

• 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."

• $350 million investment will create more than 200 new jobs.
• The assembly facility will be operational in the second half of 2021.
• Move follows the start of some test operations in Costa Rica in April this year.

December 2020. Intel Corporation announced today that it will invest $350 million US dollars over the next three years to start assembly and test operations in Costa Rica. The investment is anticipated to create more than 200 new jobs in the coming months and the facility will begin to operate in the second half of 2021.

"Intel continually evaluates its operations around the world to ensure that we have the right capacity to supply global demand. We will start the assembly and test facilities in Costa Rica to expand our global capacity so we can continue fulfilling Intel customer’s needs,” stated Ileana Rojas, General Manager of Intel Costa Rica.

“The existing infrastructure, synergy with the test operations that already exist on-site, the talent, the free trade zone regime, and legal environment gave Intel a favorable option to start its assembly capacity in Costa Rica,” added Rojas.

The assembly and test facilities will be at the company's campus in San Antonio de Belén and are expected to begin operations in the second half of 2021, once the necessary certifications have been approved. Assembly/Test operations are part of Intel’s Manufacturing and Operations organization. Once the wafer manufacturing process is completed at Intel’s fabs, the cut wafers are sent to an assembly and test facility. Each chip is assembled into a package that protects it and enables it to connect to other components. Finally, it is tested for functionality.

President Alvarado emphasized that “it is an incredibly powerful sign that amid a pandemic Costa Rica has gained strength as a reliable investment destination. It also shows that the country is building long-term relations with investors since our association with Intel is a story of working together for more than two decades. An investment of this caliber ingrains the Intel mark and opens considerable employment opportunities for people with different job profiles, who will be able to add to the exports generated by Tico talent for all the world.”

The new employees will be hired in multiple areas of engineering and there will also be opportunities for technicians in disciplines such as electronics, electromechanics, and related. Job opportunities are posted at www.intel.com/jobs

Andrés Valenciano, Minister of Foreign Trade, celebrated the announcement of this new expansion and the job opportunities it will create for many Costa Ricans.

“For Costa Rica, Intel symbolizes a pioneer in the high-tech industry that opened the door for many companies to establish in our country, similarly attracted by the talent of our people, our most valuable asset. With a history of constant transformation that today translates into a diverse range of processes, the local facility is well-positioned to service the global marketplace competitively, with elevated resilience and value-added. Such high-level performance is particularly important in a challenging context driven by Industry 4.0, and further accelerated by the COVID pandemic. We are proud to host leading companies from strategic industries that like Intel, continue to choose us as a home for their operations. We appreciate this new symbol of trust in our capacity, and bid tidings of further innovation, as the company discovers new horizons from where to continue serving its clients worldwide, with increasing sense of purpose and vision of sustainability.”

Intel in Costa Rica: high-value operations

Assembly and Test operations join the high-value operations that are already in Costa Rica. Intel Costa Rica currently employs more than 2,200 people. Its operations are divided into two large centers of excellence:

1. The Research and Development (R&D) Center: Currently the largest R&D Center in the country, focused on the design, prototype, testing, and validation of integrated circuit solutions.
2. The Global Services Center: This center performs multifunctional business processes supporting Finance, Human Resources, Sales and Marketing, Quality, and Information Technologies across the globe.

CINDE’s Managing Director, Jorge Sequeira Picado, commented that “with this project, Costa Rica is proving itself as a dependable partner for all nearshoring strategies that can help to seek out redundancies in supply chain optimization. Costa Rica has demonstrated that it can provide business continuity and a robust market-access platform for achieving this goal. This new Intel phase is a complement to its different business verticals, which range from smart manufacturing to research and development.”

In addition to the operations, Intel continues to invest in the people and local communities of Costa Rica. Over the last decade, employees have volunteered more than 190.000 hours and, only in 2019, Intel donated over US$268.000.

“During 2020, our focus has been on mitigating COVID-19 impacts, starting with our employees and expanding to the community with donations of over US$100.000 to the National Emergency Commission and the community, more than 23.000 facemasks to the Social Security Organization and over 1.000 hours in skill-based volunteering to develop mathematical models, analysis and monitoring tools which have been critical for public institutions fighting the pandemic”, concluded Ileana Rojas.