Foreign direct investment

Recruiters are looking for professional staff for their finance, purchase, sales, and information systems departments as well as technical personnel for their customer service and services center departments.

German outsourcing services supplier Bosch Service Solutions on Wednesday opened its first business service center in Costa Rica.

The pharmaceutical company hopes the expansion will allow it to increase exports by 50 percent over the next five years.

U.S.-based consulting, outsourcing and software services company GEP will open a services center in Costa Rica in the second half of 2015.

The company this week began recruiting staff for its Costa Rica facility, to be located west of the capital, San José. Operations are scheduled to begin in October, the company announced.

The new Costa Rica plant employs 270 workers and produces cotton yarn for export, mainly to other countries in North and South America.

Investments by companies in free-zone regimes helped cushion declines in foreign direct investment in other sectors.

The service center, located in Escazú, opened with 135 employees. The company estimates staff could increase up to 200 by December.

Labor Minister Víctor Morales Mora took to social media after Monday's legislative motion, saying he was happy to testify about his administration's efforts to improve the country's employment panorama.

The trade minister said that while China’s increasingly affluent population makes it a large potential market for Costa Rican fruit, vegetable, meat and seafood exporters, entry into the market is complicated by a range of factors including distance, inexperience with the country and its business norms, and rigorous regulations.