Investment up 11% for Costa Rica in 2008

Thirty new companies were established in the services, manufacturing, and medical device sectors in Costa Rica, generating an investment of $428.6 million and creating 6,300 new jobs in 2008.

Gabriela Llobet, manager of the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), a group responsible for attracting investment to the country warned that 2009 poses ever-increasing challenges to Costa Rica, as other countries try to become more competitive during the global economic crisis.

Llobet said that the crisis will inevitably have an impact in Costa Rica, but there are still promising signs for 2009.

The year has already begun with the announcement of new investments from medical device companies St. Jude Medical and BeamOne. Both companies will open new plants in the Coyol Free Trade Zone, in the Alajuela province.

St. Jude Medical, a U.S.-based multinational firm, will use the new plant to expand its production of heart valves. The $40 million investment will generate 500 jobs once the plant is in operation.

BeamOne, also a U.S. firm, recently opened its electron beam sterilization plant here.

The digital production company avVenta also announced that it would invest $20 million on technology improvements and training for its 500 employees. The company expects to employ 2,000 people by next year.

The number of new companies formed in 2008 was 11 percent higher than the previous year, and many of these businesses are in new sub-sectors. This corresponds with CINDE’s goals of promoting new markets in Costa Rica, Llobet said.

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7 million new trees at Costa Rica

Seven million trees were planted in Costa Rica last year, and both the government and residents plan to do the same this year.

The campaign that has enabled the massive endeavor is called A qué sembras un árbol, roughly translated Go Plant a Tree, and was actually initiated by a group of youth who wanted to aid in the United Nations’ worldwide campaign Planting for the Planet. That campaign aimed to grow 1 billion trees in 2007 and 3.5 billion in 2008.

A qué sembras un árbol aims to promote reforestation, forestry awareness and sustainable forestry management, with larger goals of mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity, and regaining forest cover.

The success of the campaign depended on help from everyone: public institutions, privates businesses and volunteers, Environment Minister Roberto Dobles said.

Most of the trees planted can potentially later be used for wood materials, and their projected CO2 contribution was also taken into account. The three dominant types planted were teca, melina and other native species.

Dobles said careful consideration was taken when deciding when and where to plant the trees. The largest number of the trees (30 percent) were planted in Alajuela, and the second largest amount (about 19 percent) in Puntarenas and Guanacaste.

This year the campaign hopes to plant 7 million trees again but in different areas.

For such a small country, with such a recent dedication to replanting, we’ve definitely made a lot of progress, said Dobles. We’re not a large country like the United States. For us, 7 million is a lot of trees.

Alfonso Barrantes, director of the National Forestry Office, aims to accomplish higher numbers, but added, We have our limits. Fifty-two percent of Costa Rica is already forest.

This article thx to Top10Costarica.com

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