Costa Rica Call Center Blog

Laura Chinchilla, the first woman president of Costa Rica, is expected to continue many of the policies of Oscar Arias, but with her own nuances. Given the country’s strong new economic team, growing FDI inflows, the dynamism and diversification of the export sector, and responsible anti-cyclical fiscal and monetary policy, we recommend overweighting Costa Rica in the short part of the curve.

The key to success is the country’s qualified workforce; Costa Rica’s educational system ranked twenty-sixth worldwide, the highest in Latin America according to the World Economic Forum.

Some of the country economic indicators:

Source: CINDE

• Provide Customer Services to 80,000 employees of the corporation
• Also since the country produces high-tech corporation

From Costa Rica, Intel not only designs, produce and export computer and server processors, but also provides technical support to over 50 countries and provides financial support throughout the Americas.

The company, which started operations in Heredia in 1997 alone with a chip assembly plant today makes 17 processes.

These include the production technology of the corporation and variety of financial services and engineering.

Michael Forrest, general manager of Intel general Costa Rica, said the country has exceeded the expectations of the multinational.

Proof of this is that in 2000 fewer than 50 people were charged with providing services in engineering and finance.

Currently there are about 1,000 employees who work in those fields, in addition to processor design and software, accounting, financial analysis and management, logistics, human resources and information technology. These areas are part of the global call center services. Just to give you an idea, from that center support is given to the corporation’s 80,000 employees in 50 countries worldwide.

Also from here, workers of the company are responsible for making the payroll of its employees in the US.

The 1,000 employees of the Centre for Global Services are part of the work force of nearly 3,000 people that the multinational has in the country, distributed in Heredia.

In an activity with the media, yesterday morning at the headquarters, Michael Forrest called the operation of Intel in Costa Rica as one of the most diversified global corporation. This site of “honor” he said, is shared with a site in Malaysia.

“The talent in Costa Rica is phenomenal. Here we have the best professionals and we are proud of that, “said Forrest.

Karla Blanco, manager of corporate affairs at Intel, announced that his contract represented just over 100 people, soon, for reasons of expansion in different areas of the company.

“That’s why I said that this is the footprint of Costa Rica in the world, because the operation of country covers the world and the operation of services has become increasingly important,” said Blanco, who noted some challenges of the country to remain competitive in attracting investment.

“Costa Rica should continue to invest in the generation of quality employment and creating a friendly business environment.

“Also in the issue of competitiveness, for example, in the areas of electricity and telecommunications. And talk about education and access to technology, and I must admit this is a vital point. ”

However, the executive assessed as positive the highly educated population.

Source: La Nacion

“Costa Rica is a leader in Central and Latin America for its democratic and economic stability, with opportunities for many of its residents. It is a valuable partner to share our values of democracy and economic prosperity”

Source: La Nacion

Today Presidential elections were held in Costa Rica.  Laura Chinchilla, former Vice President from the Arias administration won by a landslide 47% versus 25% of the socialist Otton Solis and 21% of libertarian Otto Guevara.  Chinchilla is the first female president of the country.

This vote represents the desire by a majority to continue with 4 more years on the current policies.  Some of the achievements of the Arias administration have been:

• Approved CAFTA (free trade agreement with the US)
• Brought back credibility and trust to the government therefore stimulating investment and growth
• Restarted a stalled concession of the San Jose airport to a world class operator
• Build the highway to the Pacific Ocean (road on the drawing board for > 30 years)
• Did a good handling of the world economic crisis therefore minimizing negative effects on the country
• Set a guide and engaged on actions to allow the country to reach carbon neutrality by 2021
• Approved the new FTZ laws
• Started diplomatic relations with China
• Started and may end negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement with Europe, China and Singapore
• Started a very successful program to allow High School students to continue their studies (Avancemos)
• Had a fiscal surplus for the first years reducing the public debt significantly

On the negative side on the export driven economy of Costa Rica, the policies have brought a new strength on the Costa Rican currency.

Costa Rica joins the Maldives and Norway in struggling to achieve “carbon neutrality” despite high cost and technological hurdles by 2021.

Source: Reuters

I read this as the beginning of the end of a monopoly held by ICE.

Existing or new Verizon Freedom Essentials bundle customers who make frequent phone calls overseas can now do so at very low rates by adding the Verizon International Single Rate calling plan.

The Verizon International Single Rate calling plan allows customers in the U.S. to make low-price calls to 118 countries, including Costa Rica.

Customers with the Verizon International Single Rate plan who exceed their minutes, call “premium numbers,” such as wireless phone numbers served by a cellular carrier in another country, or call countries not included in the plan will pay additional charges at competitive rates on a per-minute-of-use basis.

Source: TMC News

According to Transparency International 2009 Survey, among 180 countries, Chile and Uruguay share the 25th position and may be considered somewhat like referring to the Latin American region, with a Index of Perception of Corruption (CPI) of 6.7 points.  Costa Rica trails third (43 with a CPI of 5.3) and Cuba fourth (61 and CPI of 4.4).  Behind them are Brazil, Colombia and Peru all in the position 75.

Mexico, meanwhile, stood at the post 89, passed by El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama, who occupy the position 84.

According to Transparency International 2009 Survey “indicate that corruption is seriously extended” in Latin America.

Venezuela is ranked 162 on 180 countries included in the study with an Index of Perception of Corruption (CPI) of 1.9%, just one place ahead of Haiti, with a CPI of 1.8 is in place 168 and is the worst in America.

Other countries with low scores are Bolivia (120th), Nicaragua (130), Honduras (130), Ecuador (146) and Paraguay (154).

These countries have “high levels of poverty and urgently require strong and transparent institutions that can facilitate economic development more than necessary,” according to Transparency International.

For its part, Argentina is ranked 106, a position which shows that “high levels of perceived corruption are not associated exclusively with poverty, a case similar to Venezuela, the organization warns.

The regional report by Transparency International also mentions the problems of press freedom in the region and its impact in the fight against corruption.

“Journalists in Latin America face an increasingly restrictive environment, and several countries have enacted or proposed laws to silence critical journalism, which threatens press freedom in general and the fundamental possibility of exposing corruption and its impact, “says the text.

The report also stressed that corruption is a major obstacle to economic recovery being recorded in almost all nations and is especially dangerous in the weaker countries, those located in regions of conflict throughout the globe.

To carry out its annual index, TI is based on surveys of experts, officials and heads of companies and administrations of each country

Source: La Nacion, Transparency International 2009 Corruption Index

• Country Reaches 5.8% Overall Penetration, With Private and Public Schools Reaching 15% and 27% Growth, Respectively

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, October 30, 2009 – Cisco today announced the results of the Cisco® Broadband Barometer, which reported a 27.3 percent growth in fixed broadband connections in Costa Rica during the first half of 2009.

The increase in broadband connections was mainly in the enterprise and home segments. According to the study, prepared by CAATEC Foundation and sponsored by Cisco, Costa Rica reached 270,757 fixed connections and a 5.8 percent penetration in its population.

The Cisco Broadband Barometer analyzed broadband penetration in public and private schools in the country. Public and private schools experienced a 15 percent and 27 percent broadband growth, respectively, during the first half of 2009.

Despite the growth, Costa Rica still needs around 52,000 new broadband connections  to reach the goal defined by the Cisco Broadband Barometer in conjunction with the government. That goal is 325,000 connections and 7 percent broadband penetration by 2010.

Highligths:

• Nearly 52,000 connections were added to the fixed broadband market in Costa Rica during the first half of 2009. There was a 17.7 percent growth in connections with speeds between 512 kilobits per second (Kbps) and 1 megabit per second (Mbps) during the first half of 2009.
• Connections with speeds between 512 Kbps and 1 Mbps represent 37 percent of the fixed broadband market. Connections with speeds higher than 1 Mbps represent only 27.7 percent. The home segment continued to concentrate the majority of fixed broadband connections during the first half of 2009, reaching 206,877 connections and attaining a 23 percent growth.
• The enterprise segment experienced 28.6 percent growth during this same period.
• Broadband connections continue to concentrate in the urban areas. The cantons with the greatest penetration were Montes de Oca (20 percent), Escazu (19.4 percent) and Santo Domingo (17 percent). The cantons with less penetration were San Mateo, Guacimo and Coto Brus, with only 0.7 percent penetration.
• ADSL connections grew 32.2 percent and cable modem grew 19.8 percent. In the educational system. 39 percent of public schools and 61 percent of private schools have broadband connections.
• The majority of public and private schools in the country have connections with speeds between 256 Kbps and 512 Kbps.
• Mobile Internet is still at an early stage in Costa Rica, with only 6 percent of GSM cell phone lines having Internet access activated.
• There are still 52,243 connections needed to reach the goal defined by the Cisco Broadband Barometer: 325,000 connections and 7 percent broadband penetration by 2010.

Source: CISCO

• 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

According to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, Costa Rica climbs another four ranks World Economic Forum’s Annual Competitiveness Report from last year to reach 55th place, overtaking Panama (59th) as the best performer in Central America. It is worth noting Costa Rica’s remarkable evolution in the rankings since 2006, with an overall 13-position improvement since that year, demonstrating the success of the unique development strategy followed by the country over decades. This has consistently focused on high-quality education, good governance standards, and production and export diversification—notably toward high-tech products and eco-tourism. The GCI underscores Costa Rica’s fairly good institutional environment (47th), quality education at all levels (29th for primary education and 44th for higher education and training), and the sophistication of its businesses (41st) and innovation potential (34th) as areas of strength. On a less positive note, notwithstanding recent progress, macroeconomic stability, at 101st, remains a cause for concern, while the poor state of the country’s infrastructure (82nd) represents a potential bottleneck for further economic modernization and diversification. Finally, red tape and rigidities in different sectors continue to affect the country’s business environment.

For the past three decades, the World Economic Forum’s annual competitiveness reports have examined the many factors enabling national economies to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity. Our goal over the years has been to provide bench- marking tools for business leaders and policymakers to identify obstacles to improved competitiveness, thus stimulating discussion on strategies to overcome them. In the current challenging economic environment, our work serves as a critical reminder of the importance of taking into account the consequences of our present actions on future prosperity.

Since 2005, the World Economic Forum has based its competitiveness analysis on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), a highly comprehensive index, which captures the microeconomic and macroeconomic foundations of national competitiveness.

Source: World Economic Forum – Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010

About: World Economic Forum