The Costa Rican financial system makes no effort to provide resources to support innovation processes in companies.

A report entitled ‘Indicators for Science, Technology and Innovation 2010-2011’ published by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Costa Rica, notes that “what continues to stand out in the country’s financial system is the fact that it does not seem to be very mature in terms of providing resources for company’s innovation processes.”

Because of this, it is still the company’s own resources, from reinvesting profits, that are the primary source of funding for a high percentage (35.9%) of companies, while almost all of the firms do not use public resources for development or from international organizations, customers or suppliers. However, that the percentage of companies who have not turned at all to commercial banks, is down from previous years, but about 80% still do not use this funding source.

In Costa Rica there are a number of mechanisms to finance innovation activities (Table 3.9 in the PDF below), but it is clear that the coverage is still very low. There are very small percentages of the companies using these types of funds.

It is notable that the percentage of companies with funding from the MICIT’s PROPYME fund (5.1%) and the Incentive Fund (3.4%) has been increasing, as a result of this improved interaction with the sectors eligible for support. However, coverage is low and resources for expanding the number of initiatives or projects funded are scarce.

Source: MICIT.go.cr (PDF)