Costa Rica Awaits CAFTA

BY JOACHIM BAMRUD

Cesar Trujillo is bullish on Costa Rica. As general manager in Costa Rica for Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC manufacturer, he supervises an operation that has gone from 400 employees to nearly 5,000 in less than four years.  HP is so happy with Costa Rica that it has opened two separate offices there. One for sales and marketing for Central America and the other offering global outsourcing services to the corporate clients.

"Costa Rica continues to become a major hot-spot for multinational companies looking to establish their operations centers in the Central American region," he says.

Foreign direct investment last year grew by a whopping 66.8 percent to $1.4 billion. That was more than the other four Central American nations combined. It was also the highest level within the CAFTA trade group, which also includes the Dominican Republic.

"The economy is doing very well," says Isaac Cohen, president of U.S.-based...

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