Foreign direct investment from high-tech companies expected to reach $574 million

Foreign firms from the high-technology sector in Costa Rica generated some $574 million and created 8,236 direct jobs in 2012, government officials said on Wednesday.

Foreign Trade Minister Anabel González and the president of the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE), José Rossi, reported that these figures establish a new record for Costa Rica, as they exceed those obtained in 2011, when the country reached the highest numbers of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the sector in the last decade.

The previous year, high-tech FDI was $470 million, and 7,728 new jobs were created.

One of the factors that helped achieve the record was the arrival of 40 new high-tech investment projects that set up operations in Costa Rica.

The new firms belong to the Technology Services, Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Technologies sectors.

“Most of them come from the United States, India, Korea, Japan, Germany, Spain, England and Colombia,” González added.