For more than three decades, Costa Rica has been a magnet for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, the majority of projects have been installed in what is known as the Great Metropolitan Area (GAM), the main urban agglomeration of the country, which includes the conurbations of the four largest cities: San José, Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia. This has created historical debt with communities outside the Central Plateau.
For this reason, the authorities in the matter have developed strategies to expand FDI in rural places and thereby open opportunities to their inhabitants. Results are already beginning to be seen. As of the third quarter of this year, of 28 new companies installed on Costa Rican soil, 9 did so outside the GAM.
“All regions of the country have different characteristics that give them potential and, in turn, confront them with different challenges in order to attract investment in a fluid and effective way. For this reason, the Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) has been working to eliminate bottlenecks, through initiatives such as the DISCUBRE program and the Single Investment Window (VUI), aimed at facilitating the installation of new companies and the country is increasingly competitive in terms of attracting FDI,” says Laura López, general manager of Procomer. Margarita Umaña, director of Planning and Strategy of the Costa Rica Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), maintains that the approval of Law 10234, aimed at strengthening territorial competitiveness to attract investment outside the GAM, is fulfilling its purpose and is driving important change.
Many Incentives
“Companies that bring their operations to communities outside the Central Plateau have more incentives, such as, for example, a reduction in social charges for a period of time. They also have benefits in the area of electricity, such as distributed generation, among other aspects,” he points out.
Umaña points out that another successful key in the strategy of decentralization of economic growth is the coordination of work that the community development agencies are having with the investment attraction committees: “Little by little, they have taken enormous steps so that more companies return to the look at what their respective areas offer and decide, finally, to establish themselves in them.”
8 priorities of the new FDI strategy:
Attract new Foreign Direct Investment.
Generate employment, chains and economic growth throughout the country.
Develop new strategic sectors to attract FDI towards the definitive regime and free zones.
Diversify in the countries of origin of the investment.
Improve the investment climate to boost competitiveness. Generate employment and chains outside the GAM.
Contribute to the development of human talent.
Promote FDI with social and environmental return.
FDI goals for the period 2023-2026
US$12,950 million in total investment.
200 new projects.
300 reinvestment projects.
Attract 70 investment projects in areas outside the GAM.
Develop 24 projects under the DISCOVER platform.
70 projects from new geographies.
Generate 100,000 jobs (8,000 jobs outside the GAM).
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