CINDE announces: Multinational companies generated 13,754 new jobs in 2017 in Costa Rica

• To this date, 97,587 persons have a direct job thanks to multinational companies established by CINDE's support.
• Costa Rica attracted 40 investment projects in 2017.

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, Jan. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE by its Spanish acronym) and the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX by its Spanish acronym) revealed that 2017 was a positive year for Costa Rica thanks to the 40 investment projects attracted and generated 13,754 new jobs.

The new multinational companies and the already established and growing industries, in the sectors of life sciences, corporative services, advanced and light manufacture, food industry, promoted by CINDE, generated 13,754 new jobs in 2017, according to data from the Costa Rican Social Security (C.C.S.S by its Spanish acronym). This number is over the 12,307 jobs created in 2016 (11.7% more than last year).

Regarding the net change on the job level (gross employment minus the transfer of professionals to other industries from Costa Rica or multinational companies), last year reported 7,048 new jobs.

"The multinational companies attracted by CINDE's support generated 20% of net formal jobs in the country and 23% of the total employment created within the private sector in 2017. It is important to indicate that the employment growth rate in the multinationals was 7.8%. This means it was 3.7 times more than the country's average that reported a growth of 2.1%," explained Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE.

The Minister of Foreign Trade, Alexander Mora, said that "in the past 9 months of 2017, Costa Rica obtained US$2,165.6 million in foreign direct investment (FDI), which overcomes in 8.3% the goal established by COMEX in the National Development Plan for all 2017 (US$2,000 millions). Although the flows of foreign direct investment in the world are under the years of the international pre-crisis, Costa Rica has managed to get the job done and continue to attract multinational companies of well known in the country."

Investment challenges

The President of CINDE's Board of Directors, Luis Gamboa, explained that the obtained results were satisfactory within the international challenging and changing context, which demands the constant improvement of the competitive conditions from the countries that dispute FDI as a tool for development and the generation of quality jobs.

"There is a potential of having a bigger growth in the job generation that, as a country, we could take advantage of if we continue to create the human resource specialized in professional and technical areas of high demand, with the abilities that the market requires and the handling of second languages. In the challenging conditions that we face, this theme must be a national priority to continue creating more quality jobs and opportunities for the population," said Gamboa.

According to CINDE, the 2018 strategy of FID attraction includes to continue to diversify the markets in which Costa Rica attracts projects including Asia, Middle East, Europe and Latin America; the development of new sub sectors of investment such as: e-health, health and wellness, and creative industries, as well as the support and promotion of improvement initiatives of Costa Rican human resource, infrastructure, the reduction of procedures and key service costs, as others.

About CINDE

CINDE is a private, non-profit organization that has been committed to Costa Rica's sustainable development and social progress for 35 years, through the attraction of foreign direct investment in manufacturing industries and high value-added services that generate quality jobs, knowledge transfer and productive linkages. 

CINDE also collaborates in strengthening the Costa Rican business climate in a way that fosters the growth of valuable activities in the country, improving the preparation of local talent, and generating employment and greater opportunities for its population in the different communities of the country. 

Visit www.cinde.org