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Political and
social stability
* Tradition of peace and
stability
- Army abolished in 1948
* Government
- More than 100 years of democracy
- 3 independent powers
- 4 year periods with reelection
- Presidential System
* No financial crisis for more than 20 years
- Yearly output growth of 4.2%
- $4,361 per capita income in 2004
* As a result, Costa Rica benefits from good access to the world’s
capital markets and moderate risk premium
* Costa Rican Long Term Bond Ratings:
- Moody’s
Ba1 (non investment grade)
- FITCH Ratings
BB (speculative)
- Standard & Poor’s BB (speculative)
Economic Stability
Macroeconomic Stability in spite of world
economic crisis periods
Foreign Direct
Investment
Open Economy
Strategic market
access
* Tax free access to:
- USA through the CBI
- Mexico
- Canada
- Central America
- Chile
- Dominican Republic
- Panama
- CARICOM
* Preferential access through the GPS to:
- Europe and Asia
* Free Trade Agreements negotiations:
- USA (signed)
- Investment Promotion and Protection agreements with several
countries
Human Resources
*
Population to October, 2005:
- 4.3 millions
- From 15 to 35 years old: 34.2%
* Labor force 2004: 1,8 million
- Unemployment, July 2005: 6.2%
- Underemployment, July 2005: 8.4%
* Universal Health Care and Education System
- Pillars for the national stability
- 6,5% of the GDP’s destiny is for education |
Age Structure by Gender
|
Literacy Rate
Education
* Universal, free and
compulsory education since 1870 (the first in Latin America)
* Computer laboratories in 50% of the primary schools and 100% of
high schools
* English teaching in 50% of public schools and 100% of private
schools
* 92% of high school students will present graduate English test
(*)
* Training centers
- Technical High Schools (51)
- University Foundations
- INA: Free on-site technical training
- CEFOF: Center for training trainers
- CENFOTEC: Software training
* Universities, 76 (72 private, 4 state)
- Including HBS/INCAE.
Labor Force
* Costa Ricans are
healthy and motivated learners
* High observed productivity and learning speed by Free Zone
Companies
* Favorable labor environment: non-union worker organization
(Solidarismo)
* Low Turnover
Minimum wages
|
Category |
Cost per hour |
T o t a l per
year(thousands) |
| Non
qualified |
1.81 |
4.52 |
| Semi
qualified |
1.96 |
4.89 |
|
Qualified |
2.11 |
5.26 |
|
Specialized |
2.43 |
6.06 |
NOTES:
All costs include all labor charges paid by the company,
Christmas bonus and reserves for vacations, holidays and
severance (47.98% in total). Minimum salaries effective from
July 1st to December 31st of 2005. Exchange rate used: 495
colons per US$ (expected and the year end). Normal week of 48
hours and 8 hours per day. |
Average Salaries
|
Occupation |
Annual Cost (Thousands
of US$) |
| General Manager |
122.1 – 210.1 |
| Operations
Manager & Customers Service Manager |
42.0 – 67.6 |
| Production
Supervisor |
10.4 – 15.7 |
| Assistants |
9.4 – 12.5 |
| Bilingual
Secretary |
10.5 – 13.0 |
| Specialized
Worker |
5.9 – 7.5 |
| Non Specialized
Worker |
4.6 – 5.4 |
NOTES:
The total cost includes all the work charges paid by the
company, the Christmas bonus an
reserves for vacations, holidays and severance. Source:
Consulting Companies, Survey for the second semester of 2004. |
Investment
Incentives
FREE TRADE ZONE
REGIME
* 100% exemption on:
- Import rights for raw materials, equipment and components.
- Export taxes, local sales tax, excise taxes, etc
- Profits repatriation taxes.
- Those incentives dependents on the exporter’s performance must
follow the WTO Guidelines starting from December 2007.
* Minimum Investment:
- US$ 150.000 inside free trade industrial parks
- US$ 2.000.000 outside free trade industrial parks
- With possibility of sale to other exporters in the country and up
to 25% of the production in the local market.
ACTIVE FINISHING REGIME
* Suspension of 100% of the import taxes over:
* Raw materials
* Components
* Packing
* Machinery and equipment
* It does not apply a minimum amount of investment
* Proportional payment of sales taxes for the Central American
markets
Infraestructure
* Designated areas
for Free Trade Zone companies
- Privately owned and managed
- Variety of services:
- On site expedited customs
- Health
- Security
- Maintenance
- Day care
- Garbage disposal, etc
- Located 7 km away from the Juan Santamaria Intl. Airporta
* Water and Electricity
- Abundant water availability
- Enough and trustable electric power supply
- Hydroelectric, geothermic and other sources
- Electric service coverage: 97%
- Installed capacity of 1.962 MW
- Approximated cost of $0,07 - $0,12 per KW/Hour, industrial rate
- Clean energy: 97.5% of the energy sources are renewable.
* Transports
- Ports on both shores
- 24 maritime cargo lines service
- Main airport located 15 km away from San Jose
- 2º better airport of Latin-American
- 3º better airport of the world (5 million passengers per year
category)
- Competitive maritime rates to the USA, Europe and Asia
* Telecommunications
- Direct dialing worldwide
- Tone dialing, call waiting, call forwarding, etc.
- Redundant fiber optics network
- Point to point connections
- Direct world wide fiber optic access through Maya 1 & Arcos
cables
Submarine Cables
Legal Security
* Foreigners have no
limits of property handling and they can drive business activities
freely.
* Foreigners have constitutional equality of rights and obligations.
* Free capital movement
* Intellectual property laws in accordance with WTO Guidelines.
Quality of life
* Life expectancy:
78.7 years
* Health-Care Public Services Coverage: 98.3%
* Infant Mortality very similar to those of developed countries:
9.75 death per each 1.000 born alive
* San Jose is among the cities with the best quality of life in
Latin America
- The Economist Intelligence Unit, Liveability Rankings 2005
* Costa Rica is the 35° country of the world in Quality of life.
- The World in 2005, The Economist
* The surveys highlight Costa Rica as the country with the most
solid and uninterrupted democracy
Great Potential
* “Central American
Country of the Future”
- FDI Magazine, 2005
* 5th High-Tech exporter of the world
- United Nations Human Development Report 2005
* 35th in the Trade and Development Index
- UNCTAD, 2005
* One of the most successful FDI attraction advantage countries
- UNCTAD: World Investment Report, 2002; and CEPAL “FDI in Latin
America” 2003
Available Projects
in
Costa Rica
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