Costa Rica Call Center Blog

• Sector has 53,000 employees and expects to generate more jobs
• Reform encourages facilities in lesser developed areas

The approval of the new Free Trade Zone Law with the support of an overwhelming 44 congressman, allows Costa Rica to comply with a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement that will take effect in 2015.

A Free Trade Zone is an area defined within a country that enjoys tax benefits, such as withholding of import duties and some other local and national taxes.

With the newly approved law, companies will have greater legal certainty when investing, and industry representatives agreed to the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE).

This greater certainty –according to some of the companies- will result in an increase in employment in the services, electronics and medical devices sectors.

“With this achievement, we expect that 2010 to bring better results for the country” were the words almost euphoric Vanessa Gibson, director of Post Establishment Care at CINDE.

Karla Blanco, manager of corporate affairs at INTEL was very positive on the news. She reported that the parent company in California “has already been notified and received the news with great joy”.

INTEL is the largest exporter in Costa Rica. Its sales account for 20% ($ 1.9 billion in 2008) of total exports of the country.

With its 3,000 direct employees, Intel is one company that particularly advocated for this law to be voted affirmatively. Not long ago the company decided to do an investment in Vietnam that with the approved law, may have been done in Costa Rica.

“Although the company is not evaluating a new investments, the approval of this bill puts us in a stronger position in the future” added Blanco, who thanked “the early Christmas gift to the Costa Rican people” from Congress.

Roy Rojas of Bridgestone, said from their perspective the country now has “capabilities and strengths to keep growing”.

Source: La Nacion

Motif Inc., a leading U.S. based BPO and KPO Service Company that provides Customer Support, Back Office Processing, Research and Analytics, and Online Fraud Prevention services to Fortune 500 companies, has announced plans to set up a 500 seat service center in Costa Rica. The company will invest $2.5 million in this center that will begin operating in January 2010, with a 100-seat program to provide voice and email Customer Support to a leading online travel company.

The Costa Rica center will become part of Motif’s network of global delivery centers in India and the Philippines. The state-of-the-art center will offer bilingual support in English and Spanish; provide location redundancy and a marked increase in Motif’s global capacity to serve its fast-growing international customer base.

Motif’s President and CEO, Chris Meneze, indicated that “This is a significant milestone in Motif’s history – Our new Costa Rica center expands our international footprint and language capabilities, while positioning Motif for further growth.”

The Aftercare Director of the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), Vanessa Gibson, pointed out that “Costa Rica has been consolidating its position as a near shore destination by combining efficiency, quality and productivity for companies of the services sector such as Motif”.

Motif to hire 100 people before the end of the year

The international company will be a part of the 83 companies of the services sector already in the country. These companies, together, employ more than 24,000 Costa Ricans.

Source: Company Press Release

• Company is focused on corporate travel management
• Will train 30 people, aims to reach 150 in 12 to 15 months
• Costa Rican operation will handle business from Canada to Argentina

The company is scheduled to begin the second week of January in Heredia.

BCD Travel is a company that operates in 90 countries and has a payroll of 13,000 employees.  It has call centers in different regions of the world: six in the United States, six in Europe, one in Asia-Pacific and, most recently, in Costa Rica.

BCD Travel decided two months ago took to open its regional center in Costa Rica.

According to the company, the choice was based on traditional aspects as the country’s economic and political stability and its proximity to the U.S..

In addition to that, the company took into account the dynamics of Costa Rica in attracting investment and the availability of finding qualified personnel.

“We discussed for a while where to set up operations to serve the region.  In the process we spoke with representatives of other multinational companies to share their experiences and that helped us decide to establish a service center in the country, “said Barbara Blue, President for Latin America Division.

BCD Travel has already hired 30 people, which is training for the start of operations scheduled for January 11, 2010.

The site will cater customer inquiries in the Americas from Canada to Argentina in bilingual Spanish and English; however, the goal is to serve customers around the world.  To do this, BCD Travel plans are to reach 150 people within 12 to 15 months.

Source: La Nacion

• Exports went from $9.7 billion in 2008 to $8.4 billion this year
• Food, textiles, computer chips were most affected

Far from showing signs of recovery, the country’s exports maintained a steady decline from February to achieve in the 12 months ending in October its strongest decline: 14%.

The accumulated sales of the 12 months ended last October there was a slump in revenue of $1,362 million.

“If we end (the year) below 15%, in current circumstances, I see very positive,” said Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Minister of Foreign Commerce (Comex).

The goods most affected by lower demand are food (mainly to Central America), textiles and building products steel, PVC and rubber technical, listed Ruiz.

The microprocessors and chipsets from Intel also suffered declines, but these have been declining.

For example, the accumulated sales in May 2008 to April 2009 the multinational sold $1,639 million, which was lower by 27% than that recorded between May 2007 and April 2008 ($ 2,315 million).  However in the 12 months ended last October, the sum of exports of the company had a decrease of 9% ($189 million) over the same period to October 2008.

This situation, in view of Ruiz, helps the general decline in exports is not greater.

The US is the country that has fallen on purchases of Costa Rican goods.  About 34% of exports go to the US.

Source: La Nacion

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

Source: Reuters

Bob, the patient who is the subject of an eye-opening documentary about medical tourism described his knee problems as like “stepping on a steak knife. ” The makers of the film, the Medical Tourism Association, say Bob saved about $80,000 by going to Costa Rica to receive a double knee replacement.

Nearshore Americas provided “on the ground” coverage of the fast-growing medical tourism industry of Costa Rica earlier this year, which included a first-hand account of one man’s experience with vibroliposuction.

As someone who just received knee surgery because of recent collision on the basketball court, I sympathize with Bob’s predicament. He definitely made the right decision to get treatment by qualified professionals – which in this case happen to be in Costa Rica. Given the reaction of Bob’s family about seeking treatment in Costa Rica, we have a long way to go as a nation in understanding the high quality medical treatment options available offshore. (Word of warning, the video loads quite slowly and does not seem to allow for advancing.)

Video the Documentary: Bob’s Medical Treatment Story

Source: Nearshore Americas