Foreign direct investment

President Luis Guillermo Solís might have to add traveling-salesman-in-chief to his credentials. The Costa Rican leader announced Wednesday that he would travel to Canada to participate in the Toronto Economic Forum during the week of Oct. 26 to drum up more foreign investment for the country in his sixth trip abroad as president.

Casa Presidencial said that Accenture will be looking for technicians and professionals in finance, administration, systems engineering and people with experience in procurement and accounting among other fields. Interested parties can send a résumé to: accenture_av_cr_tsn@accenture.com.

Costa Rica is well-positioned to start attracting more high-tech jobs and improve its workforce, according to one keynote speaker at the Competitiveness Summit, held Wednesday at Escazú’s Hotel Real InterContinental and co-sponsored by the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and global consulting firm Deloitte.

Román Macaya was sworn in as Costa Rica’s new ambassador to the United States Wednesday morning in a ceremony at the Casa Amarilla in San José. The new ambassador will have to find a way to get Costa Rica’s voice heard in the Beltway and beyond at a time when a child immigration emergency in Central America and other global crises may drown out the concerns of the small, stable democracy.

The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Trade Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that rum manufacturer Bacardi will open a Latin American service center in Escazú on Sept. 1.

Hoarse from watching the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team on Tuesday, former U.S. President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) found his voice long enough to call on Costa Rican students to work for a better world, during a speech at the Universidad Latina.

Over seven frenetic days, Bill Clinton addressed corporate executives in Switzerland and Denmark, an investors' group in Sweden and a cluster of business and political leaders in Austria. The former president wrapped up his European trip in the triumphant Spanish Hall at Prague Castle, where he shared his thoughts on energy to a Czech business summit. His pay: $1.4 million.

StarTek, a U.S. provider of business outsourcing services, will close its call center in Costa Rica on Aug. 30, according to MarketWatch, part of The Wall Street Digital Network. The closure would mean the dismissal of the company’s 550 employees at their America Free Zone facilities in the province of Heredia, who managed customer relations and technical support calls, primarily for U.S. telecom companies.

Former U.S. President William J. Clinton (1993-2001) will visit Costa Rica next Tuesday, July 1, as part of the inauguration of a new medical research and teaching facility at the Universidad Latina in San Pedro, east of San José.

President Luis Guillermo Solís said he would meet with leaders from Intel in Palo Alto, California, during his first trip to the United States since taking office in May. The trip starts June 9.