IBM Announces us$300M Investment and 1.000 Jobs For Costa Rica

The international giant, International Business Machines (IBM), announced of Thursday that it will invest in Costa Rica us$300 million dollars over the next ten years and create up to 1.000 new jobs between now and 2014.

The IBM investment represents one of the most significant investment in the country in the last thirteen years, and the largest in the services sector for the last seven years.   The new IBM facility will create up to 1000 technical professional jobs

The company said the investment is to open an information technology services centre, to assist corporate clients in areas such as servers, information storage, security services, maintenance and monitoring hardware and defect prevention software.

IBM said it will start operations in Costa Rica in 2012 with focus on support in the area of cloud computing.

Pat Cronin, general manager of IBM Global Delivery Technology and who made the announcement at the Casa Presidencial in Zapote, said that customers who receive this support are part of Fortune 500 companies.

We know there is talent in Costa Rica and we can serve our global customers with the quality we need," said Cronin, who assured that this was the main reason that weighed in the selection of the country as a destination for the investment.

Cronin added that the company has already begun the recruiting process for technicians and systems engineers. See http://www.ibm.com/cr.

The process of choosing a country for its operations started back in 2010. Tipping the hat towards Costa Rica, according to Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, was her contact with the company during her visit to New York last September and follow up with a meeting in May when she visited Washington D.C.

“As President, my top priority is to thrust Costa Rica towards development, improving its competitiveness and guiding it towards innovation through high technology and higher value added job opportunities, such as the ones this project will generate. IBM´s decision to establish in our country is a clear sign that we're moving in the right direction. Costa Rica welcomes opportunities to further develop our skilled workforce and cultivate the young minds in our schools. In this respect, the National Social Digital Agreement Plan, which we presented yesterday, has as its main component the efficient and productive operation of companies such as IBM, through which we will take a leap towards connectivity and innovation. This is how Costa Rica will keep up to date with the new technologies of the future”, Presidenta Chinchilla said.

The Presidenta said during the press conference that IBM made her aware of the decision on Monday after the company firmed its decision last Friday.

President Chinchilla; Minister of Foreign Trade Anabel González; Minister of Science and Technology Alejandro Cruz, and a professional team of the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency, CINDE, are working closely with IBM.

“IBM's investment in Costa Rica sets a milestone in the attraction of multinational companies to our country. Parting from the fact that $300 million in investment and

the creation of 1,000 professional jobs translates into one of the most significant investments in the last 13 years and one of the most important in the services sector, it is also relevant to mention that this new project is exclusively dedicated to high information technology services, a highly sophisticated process which positions Costa Rica among the big leagues with regards to services operations in the world. Equally important is the impact that this new project will have in terms of upgrading the country's capacity in the area of Information Technology, an area which our development process will benefit from. We are facing a great opportunity which consequently represents a great challenge: lining up our education with the latest technological trends and the global leader's demands to create new, better, and growing opportunities for Costa Ricans.” assured Minister of Foreign Trade, Anabel González.

According to Alejandro Cruz, Minister of Science and Technology, “Costa Rica is moving forward towards development with the help of science, technology and innovation. The Ministry of Science and Technology is promoting this initiative through the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation 2011 - 2014, which will strengthen research, innovation and human capital, allowing for further collaboration from the Costa Rican talent in the goods and services produced.”

According to the Cámara de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (Camtic) there currently are in Costa Rica some 1.300 companies, local and international, in the information technology services field.

As to the us$300 million dollar investment, it may see a high number, but it isn't the largest investment by a foreign company. For instance, the Spanish company, Autopistas del Sol, who brings us the road to Caldera and tolls has invested so far more than us$300 million in construction and maintenance.

In terms of employment, the US giant Hewlett Packard (HP) employees more than 2.000 in Costa Rica after its 2007 expansion in the country.

IBM has been in Costa Rica since 2004 providing services in human resources processes, management and customer relations, finance, accounting and shared services to customers in the Americas.