Costa Rica Hotspot for Medical Devices in the America’s

10.04.2014 By: CINDE Costa Rica / RVO

More than 250 high-tech multinational companies are currently operating in Costa Rica’s territory, of which 51 are medical device companies; including 6 of the Top 20 largest medical device firms.

Certain factors guarantee Costa Rica's quality of operations, stability and clear growth potential, such as a highly skilled and multilingual labor force, the country’s strategic location, its excellent business climate, solid infrastructure, competitive investment incentives, high quality of life, and a strong, diverse, and consolidated Life Sciences Sector.

Costa Rica is:

  • 1st High-Tech exporter in Latin America of Industrial Products, fourth in the world –World Development Indicators 2012, World Bank.
  • 1st Country in Central America & the Caribbean for Future FDI. fDi Intelligence. Caribbean & Central American Countries of the Future 2011/2012.
  • Winner of the Future Policy Award 2010 in Biodiversity. World Future Council.
  • 1st in Availability of Scientists and Engineers in Latin America. World Economic Forum. The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014.
  • 1st place in Global Innovation Index in Latin America. INSEAD, 2013
  • 2nd Medical device exporter in Latin America. CINDE based on data from UN Comtrade, 2013.
  • 3rd in Intellectual Property Rights in Latin America. Property Rights Alliance. International Property Rights Index 2012.
  • 5rd Environmental performer in the world Yale & Columbia Universities. Environmental Performance Index 2012.
  • 7th supplier of Medical devices of the United States. CINDE based on data from International Trade Administration (Department of Commerce) of the United States, 2013.

The Life Sciences Sector in Costa Rica has experienced an incredible dynamism and growth in the past few years, which has positioned the country as a platform to export Class I to Class III devices to America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The number of companies, as well as the employment and the exports of the sector have grown steadily. With a compound annual growth rate of 22% since 1998, exports of precision and medical equipment (P&ME) reached US$1.5 billion in 2012. P&ME exports grew 2 times faster than the rest of the Free Trade Zone exports in the last decade. In 2012, Life Sciences exports represented 24% of Costa Rica’s total exports (over half of them were high-tech).

 

Read full article of CINDE
Read sector and country information of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)
Read about Dutch opportunities for Life Sciense in Costa Rica (RVO)
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