The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) celebrates its 35th anniversary marking its accomplishments of bringing more than 300 multinational businesses to Costa Rica and generating 90 thousand direct jobs and 43 thousand indirect jobs. In this Celebration, CINDE's President, Luis Gamboa, pointed out that CINDE was cataloged as the world's # 1 institution for the attraction of Foreign Di...

For the fifth year, the RIU Hotel chain reaffirms its fight against sexual exploitation of children in the tourism industry.The Hotel Riu Palace Costa Rica (All Inclusive 24h), is located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica on the edge of the beach of Matapalo. This hotel has four swimming pools (one with a wet bar), jacuzzi, gym, sauna and a wellness center "Renova Spa" with different treatments and massag...

Hotel owners in Costa Rica are leading an effort to draft legislation that would tax vacation rentals such as condominiums and other lodgings that currently fall into a legal gray area. The proposal, which is close to being introduced in the Legislative Assembly, would apply a hotel tax on rentals in Costa Rica booked through online platforms such as Airbnb, FlipKey, Tripping.com, HomeAway and ...

During a recent visit to Beijing, China by Costa Rica's foreign trade authorities, considerations for the creation of a Chinese funded and developed Special Economic Zone in Costa Rica were discussed. China presented results of a technical study undertaken to determine the feasibility of developing such a commercial zone. Moving forward on such a large scale and long-term initiative requires...

Today, Sunday, August 26 is the final day of the 3-day ExpoKids event at Mutliplaza Oeste in Escazú, a western district of San José. The free event is focused on moms and babies this year, and has information relevant to caregivers and parents of young ones, said the event's Facebook page. Next weekend, from September 1-3, the event will repeat on the eastern side of San José at the Curridab...

Venezuelan company located in Panama, Cryptobuyer, will install the first Bitcoin ATM in Costa Rica. The cryptocurrency or digital currency released in 2009 has been slowly gaining ground as more and more people get familiar with how it works. The only decentralized digital currency it uses person to person technology without the interference of a central authority. Each bitcoin is worth a c...

Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade just returned with some good news from a recent visit to Beijing, said the Foreign Trade Ministry in a statement. Foreign Minister Alexander Mora together with the Costa Rica's Ambassador to China, Patricia Rodríguez, celebrated the countries 10 years of diplomatic relations during the recent visit. One of the main outcomes of the visit was a plan to es...

Private business sector leaders criticized the Costa Rican government for interfering with individuals' and businesses' right to chose the transportation service they wish to use as police continue to crack down on Uber drivers. Alonso Elizondo, executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, is critical of a recent warning by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) to ...

The county of Santa Ana on the west side of San José, Costa Rica continues to grow, in the past few months there have been several announcements: the new PriceSmart which opens in October in Rio Oro, the new Clínica Bíblica in Pozos, the Santa Ana Country Club, the City Place Town Center (second stage of City Place shopping center) and the shopping center Santa Ana Town that will be ready in the s...

  While Costa Rica has managed to maintain an overall growth in exports, the industries experiencing the most decline in business are located outside the country's free trade zones, said economic experts, who say more across-the-board incentives are required to stimulate the country's exports. The Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO) said in a statement this week that export act...

As Costa Rica seeks to increase revenue from exports, various sectors are exploring ways to be more competitive, including the timber industry, said the  Costa Rican Trade Promotion Agency (Procomer). The agency's recent study, "The World Timber Market and Trends for Value-Added Products," recommended that the national timber sector develop ideas for new value-added products. According to th...

The Costa Rican-North American Chamber of Commerce (or AmCham, as it is commonly referred to) issued a strong statement on social media in the wake of tragic race-related clashes in the United States, one of which, in Charlottesville, Virginia, left a protestor and two police officers dead last week. The business organization, whose spokesman, Dennis Whitelaw, said has a "trajectory for human r...

This 2017 the service center sector has announced the opening of close to six thousand jobs in Costa Rica, almost double the amount of the previous year. The company that has shown the biggest and most aggressive expansion is Amazon, which recently opened 2,500 openings in different areas; other companies that have considerably increased their payroll include Microsoft, Roche, MSD, Concentrix,...

Starbucks Costa Rica continues growing its business in Costa Rica, a new location will open in the next month and a half in Paseo de las Flores Mall in Heredia. This new location brings Starbucks to a total of 12 establishments in the country, this is their first in the province of Heredia and it will follow the same concept as the rest of the locations. Starbucks confirmed this will be the ...

Fogo Brasil Restaurant in La Sabana opened doors almost 7 years ago and soon earned a steady clientele that loved this rodizio style option where you are always sure to find perfectly cooked beef cuts and an assorted salad bar. Fogo Brasil restaurant was recently acquired by Tsunami Global Group, the corporation that owns the chain of restaurants Tsunami Sushi; the company has confirmed they p...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Economy (MEIC) ordered the Wyndham Hotel to put an end to a promotion they had been running in social media in which they offered a 10% discount to those who arrived to their Mother’s Day Gastronomy Festival in an Uber. The notification was received by Gustavo Araya, CEO of Wyndham, on August 17, Araya made clear that the promotion in reference was valid only for Mot...

A shopper in Scotland brought home something unexpected with his purchase of a Costa Rican pineapple this week. The pineapple was shipped from Costa Rica as are all fresh pineapples with the crown, or green leaves attached to the top, to keep them from ripening too quickly. And this adventurous snake found that a convenient place to hide. The Edinburgh grocery shopper called the Scottish Soc...

Santa Teresa de Cóbano in Puntarenas is known as a surfer’s paradise, an ideal spot to vacation away from the big resorts of Guanacaste, one of the preferred locations for celebrities that come to Costa Rica, a remote and perfect getaway… but we certainly never consider Santa Teresa as a place of technology innovation. Silicon Paradise, is exactly that, an initiative to develop new technologica...

Costa Rica's Amazon Support Services announced today it plans to hire 2,500 people in the second half of the year, according to a press release from the Foreign Trade Ministry, COMEX. New positions require mastery of at least two languages; in addition to Spanish, applicants should speak either English, Portuguese, Italian and/or French. In addition to customer service, Amazon offers positio...

Accenture, named this year by Fortune Magazine as the world's most admired information technology services company, will be establishing a new delivery center in Costa Rica for the 70+ Search Technologies big data engineers based in the country, said a company press release. The Fortune 500 company announced earlier this month their acquisition of Search Technologies, a Herndon, Virginia-...

Costa Rican producers and exporters are in Colombia this month for a round of visits and talks to search out new markets for their products, reported the Costa Rican foreign trade promotion agency, Procomer. A recent market study conducted by Procomer, "Colombia: analysis for the marketing of pastas, snacks, cookies, and sauces," has been a tool for businesses in Costa Rica over the past year t...

If you have a corporation, or several, in Costa Rica, be aware that as of September 1st the government will charge the annual corporation tax. For 2017 the amount will be prorated, meaning you will only have to pay September 1st through December 31; therefore this year’s amount is less, ranging from 21,308.00 colones (close to $38.00) for an inactive corporation, to 71,026.00 colones ($125.00 a...

ExpoEmpleo, Job Expo in Costa Rica has 1500 positions to fill, the event is scheduled for September 1st and 2nd at the National Stadium from 9 a.m. through 6 p.m. In total 15 companies are looking for bilingual or multilingual candidates to fill up positions as customer service representatives, fraud investigation specialists, group managers, IT support engineers, human resources specialists, f...

A mega rail and road cargo transportation project that would completely bisect Costa Rica east-west through its northern region seems to have the makings of a future conservationist versus businessman standoff. The details of the project's location have been kept nebulous, while those in the shipping, trade and transport sectors tout the economic benefits of a future rapid interoceanic system t...

A recent analysis by the London-based IHS Markit concluded that homicide rates in Costa Rica are likely to continue rising while ongoing fiscal crisis limits government resources for increasing the security forces’ capacity. The report also said a concurring trend of rising violent robberies in Talamanca canton, Limón province, raises the likelihood of declining popularity for Caribbean beach a...

Crowley Liner Services will begin fixed-day, weekly sailings on Wednesday, Aug. 9, directly between Florida and Costa Rica and Panama. The new service offers fast transits to speed cargo to market at peak times to better connect customers' U.S. and Central American supply chains. Crowley's vessels will sail southbound from Florida on Wednesdays from the Port of Jacksonville, and Fridays from Port...

Convergys will once again expand its operations in Costa Rica, and requires to fill 200 positions in the areas of Customer Service and Technical Support. Convergys currently has over 2000 employees. “Thanks to the high quality and professionalism standards that the company operates under, and the commitment of our employees, more and more companies recognize our leadership in the industry, a...

A growing demand for pet health services in Costa Rica is driving the growth in private veterinary hospitals. Many are open round the clock, 365 days a year. The Veterinary Practitioners Professional Association has five such complexes registered. Those include the San Rafael Hospital and Veterinary Clinic in Heredia; the San Antonio Veterinary Hospital, also in Heredia, and the Intensivet Vete...

The first Crate & Barrel in the Central American region opens today, Friday, July 28, at Avenida Escazú, a trendy, upscale commercial and residential complex just west of San José, Costa Rica. The store involved an investment of US$4 million, has an extension of 2,200m2, and will employ an estimated 40 people for ​​sales, cashier, exhibition, and other work. Crate & Barrel offers its...

Photo: Vinos don Teófilo Costa Rica When we choose a bottle of wine we usually go for wine produced in France, perhaps Chile, Australia or even California; most certainly Costa Rica won’t be in your top 10 or even top 20, no one could blame you, Costa Rica is not known for its wine, but there are some entrepreneurs that have been working on changing this for several years now. In recent yea...

Feuji, a services company specialized in providing technology and cloud services solutions, officially announced its establishment in Costa Rica and hiring 150 additional employees for the remainder of 2017. The company, located in Ultra Park 1, already employs 70 people and will add 150 jobs/positions. The company foresees that its operation may require up to 500 employees to meet the operatio...

A year after Costa Rica and China signed a Joint Action Plan for Cooperation - 2016-2020, Costa Rican exporters are still waiting to sell their products across the Pacific. The Costa Rican Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO) decided to push for action so that producers in Costa Rica can take advantage of the favorable conditions offered under this special agreement before more time elapses. C...

The production of coffee around the world, including Costa Rica could be affected by climate change, stated experts and authorities in Colombia, which also warned no country is ready to face these problems. Because of how sensitive coffee plants are to small fluctuations in temperature as the temperature goes up this will affect the coffee production which in the past few years has been overtak...

Mayca Food Service, a distributer of food service and bakery products in Costa Rica, inaugurated its new distribution center in El Coyol, Alajuela. The new facilities will serve as headquarters for the regional expansion the company announced in September of 2016 when they opened a similar establishment in Panama under the brand Sysco (Sysco Corp. owns 50% of Mayca's shares since 2014); they ar...

Walmart inaugurated its tenth store in Costa Rica and the first out of the metropolitan area, located in the city of Liberia, Guanacaste. With an investment of almost USD $1.5 million the new location opened doors July 15 and generated 118 direct jobs and 380 indirect jobs. The store offers the same products clients are used to finding in Walmart locations, electronics, clothing, bakery, app...

Costa Rica is among the Latin America countries seeking new sources of suppliers for cars, and other items such as apparel, said the Canadian Manufacturing trade magazine. A recent study by UPS on import activities by businesses in Latin America have opened a window on new opportunities for exporting countries. Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru were found to have the highest percentage of impor...

Twenty-one new businesses have agreed to participate in a gender equality and women's economic empowerment program organized by the Costa Rican National Institute of Women (INAMU, its initials in Spanish) with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The female employment rate in Costa Rica is 39.9 percent, while that of men is 68 percent, based on the Continuous Employment S...

Medical tourism in Costa Rica presents a constant growth since 2012, many health care professionals and health care centers know the potential this market represents and have made efforts to appeal to this growing clientele. In 2015 the country received almost 25 thousand more patients than in 2012, going from close to 45 thousand in 2012 to almost 70 thousand in 2015 according to data provided...

The British engineering firm, Mott MacDonald, announced yesterday the delivery of the much-awaited masterplan for the proposed new international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The project will replace Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport, which will be unable to meet future passenger demand beyond 2026. The 12-month feasibility study forecasts a demand of 7.8 million...

Shared work between humans and robots is on the horizon as a way to potentially reduce costs and errors, and to improve productivity and quality. Are service centers in Latin America ready to make this leap? This is one of the central themes being discussed at a regional meeting this week in San José of Latin American shared services center leaders. The event, organized for the fifth cons...