San Jose stands out among the best cities for service companies
- Report highlights quality of staff, English and proximity to the U.S.
- San Jose gained seven seats in 2008 compared with Rio de Janeiro and Budapest
San Jose is among the top cities to provide Outsourcing Services. San Jose climbed seven places this year compared to 2008 and was ranked 20th among the top 50 cities, ahead of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (21), Budapest, Hungary (22) and Toronto, Canada (23), according to a report by Global Services Media.
Global Services Media, which released the study last week, has published the study for the last 3 years for research focusing on outsourcing and technology markets.
The report states that the Costa Rican capital is attractive because of the availability of trained staff with good English skills as well as other languages, its time zone and geographical proximity to the U.S. in addition to attractive package of incentives.
The report also mentioned the success of Hewlett Packard (HP) and IBM, Sykes among others, which led them to continuously expand their businesses in the country. HP, for example, recently opened a research and development to designed the software to their wireless networks and chips for connecting network devices.
The multinational companies in the service sector provide for almost 24,000 jobs among 81 companies.
Arturo Barboza, from Sykes said the company’s growth has been driven by the quality of its employees. Sykes grew from a staff of 150 people in 1999 to 2,800 this year. “We got to make our way here when services were just beginning. Ten years later we believe that the country still has conditions for further growth”, acknowledged Barboza. However, he recommended the next government to strengthen the teaching of English in public schools to ensure the necessary workforce for the future.
Vanessa Gibson, Post-Care director at CINDE, said the study by Global Services Media is important for attracting investment into the country. “The document emphasize on the image and credibility of Costa Rica” she said. San Jose was among the winner emerging cities in 2009, “despite the crisis, outsourcing showed signs of continued evolution and maturity” the report said.
Gibson said the financial crisis created opportunities for the country as “U.S. companies turned to outsourcing to save costs”.
Source: La Nacion
