Over 33,500 new jobs were created at multinational corporations based in Costa Rica between 2014 and 2016.

These jobs were created by companies that newly set up operation or expanded their existing projects in the country, said Luis Gamboa Arguedas, president of the Costa Rican Development Initiatives Coalition (CINDE).

During this period, the country racked up at least 118 such foreign investment projects. In 2014 Brightstar, IBM, Aspen Pharmacare, Roofing Solutions, Accenture and Amazon, were some of the companies that announced new investments.

“Our country is today home to more than 297 multinational companies in strategic sectors such as corporate services, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, light manufacturing and the food industry. These same companies also employ almost 90,000 Costa Ricans,” added Gamboa Arguedas.

In 2015, 39 transnational investment projects added some 12,000 new jobs in Costa Rica, which meant that employment created by foreign investment grew by 9.1 percent, which was three times faster than the rest of private employment and the overall national employment growth.

Last year, despite the challenging global environment for attracting foreign direct investment, Costa Rica continued to position itself as a highly competitive headquarters in the Americas for leading companies in medium and high technology sectors, and added 12,307 new formal jobs through 40 investment projects.

From 2014-2016, according to figures from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), direct foreign investment in the country has generated US$12.18 billion in economic activity.

As Costa Rica competes with an ever-broadening field of new players in the foreign investment market, the country is working hard to provide an attractive environment for multinationals to establish and expend their work here.