Costa Rica is strategically located in the middle of the Americas

Costa Rica Daily News!

Monday 11 August 2008, San José, Costa Rica
Majority Of Costa Ricans Reject High Rise Living
ICE Contemplating Offering Services Outside Costa Rica
Outstripping Tourism
Brazilian Investors
Restricted Spending, Improved Economy For 2009 Expected

Outstripping Tourism
Currently, tourism leads in service exports in Costa Rica, but in seven years it will have lost that first place to the international service firms which operate in free zones.

The Coalición Costarricense de Inciatives de Desarrollo (CINDE) - Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives - forecasts that by the year 2015 service exports will reach us$4.6 million, while tourism sales will be at us $4.5 billion.

According to CINDE, Costa Rica is strategically located in the middle of the Americas, has positioned itself as a key destination for operations and its stable and transparent business environment allows companies in a variety of industries such as advanced manufacturing, medical devices, and services, to operate in an ideal location from where to supply or service the global market.

Over 200 transnational companies are currently operating in Costa Rica and are benefiting from a highly-skilled and qualified labor force, along with a solid infrastructure which has ultimately helped them with their bottom line: overall efficiency and easy market access.

Costa Rica is among the world’s top 4 high-tech exporters (World Development Indicators 2008, World Bank) and is the most attractive country in terms of Government support in Latin America (A.T. Kearney, Destination Latin America: a Near-shore alternative).

Costa Rica facts, Costa Rica travel videos, flags, photos - National Geographic

Costa Rica Information and History

Located in Central America, Costa Rica has coastlines on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The tropical coastal plains rise to mountains, active volcanoes, and a temperate central plateau where most people live (San José, the capital, is here). The only country in Central America with no standing army, it enjoys continuing stability after a century of almost uninterrupted democratic government. Tourism,which has overtaken bananas as Costa Rica's leading foreign exchange earner, bolsters the economy. A quarter of the land has protected status; the beauty of rain forest preserves draws more and more visitors.
ECONOMY

Industry: microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials.
Agriculture: coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar; beef; timber.
Exports: coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples, textiles.

Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004
Costa Rica Flag and Fast Facts
Flag of Costa Rica
Population
4,331,000
Capital
San José; 1,085,000
Area
51,100 square kilometers
(19,730 square miles)
Language
Spanish, English
Religion
Roman Catholic, Evangelical

Currency
Costa Rican colon
Life Expectancy
79
GDP per Capita
U.S. $8,300
Literacy Percent
96