The new FDI attraction model from PROCOMER proposes generating 100,000 jobs in Costa Rica

Publicado por Ofelia Fernandez en 15 June 2023

Nueva estrategia se enfoca en abordaje integral de inversión y exportaciones.

The new strategy focuses on a comprehensive approach to investments and exports.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) and the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER) presented the new strategy for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Costa Rica, which consists of a policy and a four-year strategy that, among other things, aims to generate 100,000 jobs and attract 70 investment projects in areas outside the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM).

Likewise, the institution’s aspiration is that the amount of investment in these four years reach $12,950 million, 300 reinvestment projects, 200 new projects, 24 projects under the DESCUBRE platform, 8 thousand jobs outside the GAM, 70 projects from new geographies, and 12 thousand people employed through human talent programs.

“We are pleased to present this ambitious FDI attraction model. With the strategy that we are launching today, we’re seeking to generate a sense of well-being in all regions of the country, with a very clear objective: to promote, attract, and retain investments that boost employment and exports in the country with a solid differentiated value proposition that is consistent with the needs of Costa Rica, the geopolitical reality, and global trends,” said the Minister of Foreign Trade, Manuel Tovar Rivera.

For his part, Pedro Beirute Prada, General Manager of PROCOMER, added that Costa Rica has a robust value proposition for investors thanks to differentiating aspects, such as sustainability, political stability, legal certainty, human talent, country reputation, commercial platform, tax incentives, and geographic location. However, as a country, there are also urgent challenges to address, such as unemployment, the territorial divide, talent shortage, and the concentration of sectors.

“Our objective is to generate well-being for the entire country. For this reason, and to address these challenges, we’re proposing a differentiated strategy to attract FDI based on a comprehensive approach to investments and exports in a way that creates linkages, job creation, and knowledge transfer,” said Beirute.

The axes of the strategy presented by PROCOMER are:

Attraction of new FDI in sectors: consolidated, incipient, and new.
Establishment and after-care: support and advice on soft-landing procedures; supplier management; alliances with actors in the FDI ecosystem; new incentives; reinvestments; and the elimination of obstacles and/or bottlenecks to investment.
Special programs: beyond GAM, human talent, clusters, and chains.

These three axes will intersect with competitiveness and sustainability. Furthermore, the strategy proposes addressing eight priorities:

To attract new foreign direct investment.
To generate employment, linkages, and economic growth throughout the country.
To develop new strategic sectors to attract FDI towards free zones and the final regime.
To diversify the investments’ countries of origin.
To improve the investment climate in order to boost competitiveness.
To generate employment and linkages beyond the GAM.
To contribute to the development of human talent.
To encourage a social and environmental return in the FDI.

The General Manager of PROCOMER added that the institution’s strategy seeks to address diversification through new investment models, serve consolidated and new sectors, attract investment in free zones and in the final regime, as well as promote new investment models: project portfolios,joint ventures,mergers and acquisitions, brownfield and BOT (build – operate – transfer). All this goes hand in hand with a competitiveness strategy through the resolution of bottlenecks and articulation between the public, private, and academic sectors — areas in which PROCOMER has extensive experience.

To develop this work, PROCOMER has more than 25 years of experience in the administration of the free zone regime – thus established in the Law of its creation -, a network of 26 trade promotion and investment offices with extensive knowledge and international experience which will be strengthened in new markets. Furthermore, it has 7 regional offices with first-hand knowledge of the needs of the different areas beyond the GAM as well as a new Investment Directorate, from which the strategy will be executed, and the established priorities will be addressed.

PROCOMER’s FDI strategy was conceived by a team of local and international experts in international trade and investment and was submitted to the Institution’s Board of Directors for analysis during multiple work sessions. On June 5, the plan was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors.