Why Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the most sought after Latin American investment destination today. The reasons are numerous. While Costa Rica has the most literate and disciplines workforce in the region, the government is helping the cause by installing the most modern infrastructure to invite hi tech companies to take the first step in investing in Costa Rica. Breaking the traditional mould of the Costa Rican economy that depended on coffee, bananas and cattle has not been easy but the government is slowly but steadily transforming the economy to a microprocessor and telecommunication based one.

Advantages

With this change in stance, infrastructure and the creation of investment friendly economic climate, Costa Rica has managed to get world leaders like Intel, GE, Acer, Microsoft, Abbot Laboratories, western Union and Continental Airways make good and quantifiable investments in the country. While the change has been substantial, Costa Rica has broken the dependency on export revenue from coffee, bananas and tourism and graduated from an agriculture driven economy to a technology drive one at the turn of the century.

With Costa Rica going to become the Silicon Valley of Latin America, the World Bank has also given a clean chit to economic and political health of Costa Rica. Stating that Costa Rica is “one of the most stable and robust” democracies, the World Bank also praised the “healthy economic growth rate” that Costa Rica has achieved in the past few years giving out “some of the best social indicators”.

Costa Rica, over the past few years has succeeded in building a big competitive advantage amongst hi-tech companies bringing in more and more investment into the country owing to cheap, educated, skilled manpower and infrastructure facilities.

The government of Costa Rica has firmly decided and has taken a legislative and constitutional path to privatize and deregulate the industry through a national consensus. Costa Rica is going slow and steady on the process and has decided to slowly open up areas like telecommunication. The process will not involve selling off the facilities but will take be offered through the route of concessions and management holdings. Sensitive areas like the Costa Rica Institute of Electricity which is a monopolistic entity at present is being hived off as a branch in the modern infrastructural approach.

This not only lends stability to economy but also takes a safe and secure approach to globalization and development process, making Costa Rica a more sought after investment destination.