Source:; Getinge GroupSan Jose, July 21st 2016. Getinge Group announced the establishment of its new Shared Services Center (SSC) in Costa Rica. The new office, located in Avenida Escazu, employs 59 associates who provide services to partners and customers in United States and Canada. The services provided are in Finance and Accounting, with the possibility of expanding into other areas such a...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minster Alexander Mora announced the start of $2.5 million construction on the Invenio University campus in Guanacaste that will house the Illinois, U.S.-based Continuum Data Center, LLC. Continuum Data offers purpose built data centers and colocation solutions to businesses. Starting with a staff of 20 they plan to eventually grow to 300 a...

A revolving door cabinet has been an unfortunate staple of the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis, but the latest departure of a top-level official has shaken Costa Rica in a most unusual manner. For 26 months, Guillermo Santana did a less-than-stellar job as the director of the Rail Institute of Costa Rica. There were a few commuter train crashes, and there was also the dubious h...

By Wendy Anders Concentrix is a high value business services company operating in 25 different countries and a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 Synnex corporation based in Fremont, California. The company, which is celebrating 10 years of operations in Costa Rica, is currently looking for recruitment specialists, account supervisors, quality and finance analysts, customer service representative...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s constitutional court recently upheld the regulation of the cultural content of advertisements for alcoholic beverages, according to a judicial press statement released Friday. Stating that “prohibiting the use of national symbols and folkloric music in publicity campaigns for alcoholic beverages is meant to avoid associating alcohol consumption with the culture,...

AuxisAuxis, a leading management consulting and outsourcing firm providing both IT and business process services, is pleased to announce that it has been named by IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) as a “Top Company” for two categories—Customer References and Overall Revenue As Rising Star. “We are honored by this listing and humbled to be in such great company with ...

(Wikimedia Commons) By Wendy Anders The Massachusetts-based global digital, social, and mobile content company, Lionbridge, is opening 100 new positions in Costa Rica, a 200 percent increase in their staff here. Their new positions are in the areas of translation and localization due to a recent increase in the volume of their telephone interpretation services. Lionbridge has operatio...

Wikimedia Commons The latest Central America Country Risk Report by Business Monitor International is now available, and it paints as less than optimistic picture for Costa Rica. Central American outperformers Costa Rica and Panama are facing a more challenging road ahead in the coming years. As real GDP growth slows in Panama on the back of the end of canal construction, establishing fisca...

Kreston International, the global network of independent accounting firms, has announced that is has admitted Díaz & Zeledón, Costa Rica, to membership. Founded in 2001 and based in San José, Díaz & Zeledón offers the full range of audit and accounting services. Kreston CEO Jon Lisby, comments: "We are delighted to strengthen our resource in Latin America with the admittance of Díaz ...

Wikimedia Commons Grupo LALA S.A.B. de C.V., a Mexican company focused on the healthy food industry, ("LALA") (BMV: LALA B) announces that it has signed a strategic agreement with the Costa Rican company Florida Bebidas, S.A. ("Florida"), for the production, distribution and sale of LALA® products in Costa Rica. This strategic agreement will provide LALA access to a platform to strengthen i...

Waning economic growth in many countries and higher home prices further enhanced by a strengthening United States dollar resulted in a slight decline in international sales dollar volume of U.S. property over the past year and a significant retreat in buying from non-resident foreigners. This is according to an annual survey of residential purchases from international buyers released today by t...

By Wendy Anders Massachusetts, U.S.-based life sciences company Precision Coating Co., Inc. (PCCI), in its first move to a manufacturing site outside of the U.S., announced in a press statement today they will open a plant in Coyol, Alajuela at the end of the month. The plant will employ sophisticated automated technology in the production of fluoropolymer and derivative coatings used in...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Ministry of Agriculture decided to make July 4th National Cocoa Day. The Día Nacional de Cacao was inaugurated this year to increase attention and channel support to this recovering agricultural sector that was decimated in the early 1980s by a rapidly spreading fungus called Moniliophthora roreri. In response to the destructive pod-rot fungus that spread to C...

By Wendy Anders In June GrupoQ Corporation opened a state-of-the-art digital showroom for its new Hyundai models on the first floor of Alajuela’s City Mall, adjacent to the Juan Santamaría International Airport. This novel showroom, the first of its kind in Latin America, allows potential buyers to experience different car models on digital screens in addition to viewing the cars themselves,...

By Wendy Anders In a historic victory for the environmental movement in Costa Rica, a broad coalition of local residents, politicians, environmentalists and others hailed today’s decision by the Los Chiles Municipality to halt expansion of pineapple production for five years. The Northern Region where Los Chiles is located is home to 47 per cent of Costa Rica’s pineapple production with 17,8...

Wikimedia Commons. By Wendy Anders This afternoon, Public Security Minister Gustavo Mata, addressed Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly to push for the need to regulate the sale of violent toys in the country. The meeting came on the heels of an assault this morning in Limón in which a man used a toy gun to rob a woman while she was walking with her young son, said the ministry in a press ...

By Wendy Anders Every year in July, the National Census Institute (INEC) sends surveyors to a sample of homes throughout Costa Rica to provide updated demographic and economic data to policy makers. Starting today, the survey, known in Spanish as La Encuesta de Hogares, aims to reach an estimated 13,5000 homes with questions on income, poverty, equality, access to good and services, land use...

Wikimedia Commons By Wendy Anders Convergys, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based customer and information management company, announced another expansion of operations in Costa Rica today in a press statement. After adding 500 jobs in February, the company has had another boost in their growth and will add 500 more positions at their Ultra Park site in Heredia. The Heredia Ultra Park II shared...

By Wendy Anders New Costa Rica Marine Fuel Dock Nears Completion The Costa Rican State Oil Refinery (Recope) announced the completion of 85 percent of the work on a new marine terminal for receiving petroleum at the Moín, Limón port on the Caribbean coast. Last week, the construction of the dock’s five arms was completed, said Recope. Engineer Reina Naranjo who is in charge of the proj...

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. (“Bladex” or “the Bank”; NYSE: BLX) announced the recent closing of a US$85 million, three year, syndicated loan facility in favor of Banco BAC San José, S.A. (“BAC San José”), the largest privately-owned bank in Costa Rica. BAC San José is a subsidiary of BAC Credomatic Inc., a leading Central American banking group with operations in Costa Rica...

Safran Identity & Security, the global leader in identity and security, has announced it is expanding its business activities in Central America. The company has acquired the former office location of the Colombian-based Carvajal Group in Costa Rica. For Safran Identity & Security, this new location marks another important strategic development for its business activities in Central Ame...

Copyrights [email protected] By Wendy Anders Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW), the Irvine, California-based world leader in heart valve technologies and hemodynamic monitoring, announced today they are expanding operations to set up a heart valve manufacturing plant in Cartago, Costa Rica. Located in the La Lima Free Zone in Cartago, the company is currently looking to fill abo...

In Costa Rica, funds destined to finance projects of the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT) are usually managed by national banks where deposits are unconditionally guaranteed by the government. For this reason, the MOPT Minister is now being questioned as to why he chose a private, international bank to handle more than $450 million. Minister Carlos Villalta has explained that ...

Bathroom with lights on. By Wendy Anders Yesterday, the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) announced changes to electricity rates which will be in effect from July through September. The agency cited a 6.64 percent increase in energy production costs due to the use of fossil fuels to meet the growing energy demand earlier this year, mainly to cover industrial and commercial energ...

Cartoon by Clay Jones The European Union leaders have agreed that Brexit is irreversible in a summit where accusations were exchanged on both sides about who bore responsibility for the decision, and pressure was exerted on London to activate the divorce process as soon as possible. British Prime Minister David Cameron said after attending his last European Council summit that he would have...

Source: Heineken Despite volatile global markets and growing security issues, organizations continue to leverage global expansion strategies to remain competitive and to grow. Yet, few organizations are prepared for the challenges world events have on their business, including the impact on cost of expatriate packages. Mercer’s 22nd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that factors including ...

By Wendy Anders You may want to take a trip to the gas station today or tomorrow. An increase in gas prices recently approved by the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) will take effect later this week.  It more than doubles the decrease that went into effect this past March. In the past such hikes have caused long lines at stations as people stock up to save a little before prices go ...

By Wendy Anders While business owners, legislators, and government offices alike consider a host of measures to alleviate commute times and its stress on workers and families, the vehicles keep pouring in. Car imports for the first five months of the year are up 26 percent over last year’s same time-frame as reported today by CentralAmericaData.com. And car sales in March, as reported in ...

Wikimedia Commons To be able to celebrate the Panama Canal expansion is, for many Panamanians, experiencing a milestone of their ancestors, who witnessed the first transit through the waterway 102 years ago, so they went out today to dance, which is how they express themselves best. The afternoon of Jun. 26, when the Chinese container ship Cosco Shipping Panama made the inaugural transit th...

Pixabay Commons Of all immigration proceedings available to foreigners in Costa Rica, the process of getting a work permit for employees is one of the most Byzantine. What makes getting work permits in Costa Rica so complicated is that more than one government agency is involved in the process. The Directorate of Immigration and the Ministry of Labor must review the applications before they...

Cartoon by Clay Jones Some voters in the United Kingdom are angry at what they believe was a poor information campaign leading up to the referendum to leave the European Union. According to a news report filed by Lizzie Dearden of UK national newspaper The Independent: Electoral services workers have reported calls from people asking if they could change their decision after Friday’s resul...

(Illustrative image. Courtesy Thomson Airways) Over the last few months, the tourism industry of Costa Rica has enjoyed an increase of British and European visitors thanks to the inauguration of two flights from London, but officials fear that this joy will be diminished by Brexit. The people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, which means that European tourists can no ...

Wikimedia Commons A quintal (46 kilograms) of high-quality Costa Rican coffee was purchased Wednesday by a Japanese company at $5,900 in the Cup of Excellence's online auction, the event organizer reported. The price sets a new record high in this type of auction, according to the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (Icafe). The Japanese company Wataru bought 11 bags of coffee grown in the Su...

Cartoon by Clay Jones Amid high security, presumptive Republican candidate for United States presidency, Donald Trump, visited Scotland where he was due to inaugurate his luxury hotel and golf complex Friday. Arriving by helicopter, Trump said the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union was a "great thing" and that the British people had "taken back their country." Accordin...

Close up of a Marijuana plant flowering during the final stages of growth. EFE/file San Jose, Costa Rica will be the site of the Latin American Medical Cannabis Conference, July 28-29th at the Crown Plaza Hotel,. Top- level Cannabis industry speakers, from the U.S., Colombia, Uruguay, Chile and Costa Rica will address topics related to the Medical Cannabis field. There will be full translation s...

Bionovelus Phoenix, June 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioNovelus, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: ONOV) is pleased to announce that four thousand (4,000) bottles of its biodegradable fungicide, CR-10, the answer to killing coffee rust, has been manufactured for delivery to Costa Rica. Mr. Jean Ekobo, President/CEO of BioNovelus, Inc., says, "This CR-10 allotment is slotted for ongoing tests with our partne...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Last year, Costa Rica received over one million North American visitors who arrived in the country by air, and over 13 percent of these directly associated to business related travel. In recognition of the key role that the meetings industry has on the country, Costa Rica joined hundreds of other nations around the world to support the first ever Global Meetings Industry Day...

Despite a Presidential Decree issued last week, the exit tax charged at Costa Rica airports for international travelers will remain at $29. The Decree seeks to increase the airport exit tax by $2, which will benefit the National Animal Welfare Service (Spanish acronym: SENASA), a government entity.   According to a news report by Fernando Muñoz of national radio station Monumental 93.5 ...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — CooperVision has opened a new, 100,000 square-foot, high-volume manufacturing facility at Coyol Industrial Park in Alajuela, Costa Rica, the company announced earlier this week. The Costa Rica plant is the company’s second site for clariti 1-day silicone hydrogel lens manufacturing, joining an existing facility in Budapest, Hungary. CooperVision also maintains high-volume...

Both mature and developing alcoholic drinks categories in Costa Rica experienced increased competition in 2015 - a development which, along with product innovation and changing consumer value expectations, were the main sales drivers within the area during 2015. Volume and value growth remained limited in 2015, with there being a clear trend towards modest pricing and an increase in the penetratio...