Explore Costa Rica.com is Costa Rica's online English language daily newspaper, featuring Costa Rica News, Costa Rica Events, Central America News, Costa Rica Weather, Costa Rica Travel, Costa Rica Business, Costa Rica Real Estate, Costa Rica Hotels, Surfing, Fishing, Golf Tournaments, for all those traveling or living in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Business News: The "New" San Jose

Perhaps nowhere is Costa Rica's growth shift more apparent than in the software sector. The Chamber of Software Producers of Costa Rica (Caprosoft) was created in 1998 by 15 software firms to promote the country's resources in software development—and it's working.

"There is a niche developing here around software development as a result of the high-tech focus brought about by Intel's decision to start a lot of this area's high-tech activity," says Quintana. "That has created this technological niche and even focused some of the local schools and universities on high-tech."

The "new San Jose" (Costa Rica's appropriately named capital and high-tech center) is home to a blossoming software and IT industry. One of those companies is ArtinSoft, a 15-year old software migration specialist in San Jose.

ArtinSoft board member Carlos Manuel González says the high-tech industry in Costa Rica is more developed than in most of its neighboring countries because Costa Rica has spent "decades supporting public education in a way other developing countries have not. And the results are apparent when companies arrive and find a highly educated population, fluent in English and with an excellent attitude towards technology."

But in addition to high-tech manufacturing and software development, there is a rapidly developing market for service industries such as call centers and IT service support centers to serve the U.S. market. "I heard an estimate that there are 25,000 to 30,000 people employed in these industries today," says Quintana.

In 2006, Hewlett Packard announced a major expansion of its call-center operation in Costa Rica which handles IT and service calls for a variety of multinational companies. Also last year, Fujitsu Consulting unveiled plans to open a new call center facility at San Jose's Ultra Park free trade zone. Steve Kirchoff, executive vice president of Fujitsu Consulting, said at the time that "Costa Rica provides a well-educated workforce familiar with U.S. culture and language. Further, its geographic and time zone proximity to the U.S. makes Costa Rica an ideal partner."

Costa Rica's very high literacy rate is clearly one of the things attracting multinational companies looking for a good location for call centers and manufacturing plants. According to a 2006 report from the United Nations, Costa Rica has a 95% literacy rate, well above that of China (91%), Brazil (89%) and India (61%), and on par with the U.S.

In addition, Costa Rica's booming tourism industry has encouraged many Costa Ricans to learn English and become much more familiar with U.S.-based business practices than other countries in the region, making it a natural fit for a variety of U.S-focused customer service-related businesses.