< Previouscinde.org• Education in Costa Rica has been free and mandatory since 1870.• Costa Rica has enjoyed 120 years of democracy as well as economic and political stability. nationalinvestt.co.tt• Trinidad and Tobago’s major exports include crude oil, liqui ed natural gas, asphalt, methanol and ammonia.• Trinidad’s two fully developed industrial ports at the Port-of-Spain and Pt. Lisas serve as major cargo ports facilitating transshipment to South America. nationalpanamapacifi co.com• Panama Paci co was recognized as the Best Free Trade Zone of the Americas and received nine awards in the “Global Free Zones of the Year 2018.”• From Panama, Lacoste coordinates the development of its products, production and distribution for Latin America and the Caribbean. regionalcurinde.com• Curaçao being part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands provides special access to the European Union.• The country’s development as a logistics and distribution center is buttressed by the Curaçao Airport Free (Economic) Zone and the Harbor Free (Economic) Zone. regionalCentral America & Caribbean98 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nprocolombia.co• Technological infrastructure supported by 10 submarine cables guarantees national connectivity and serves to increase Colombia’s competitiveness.• Colombia has more than 16 current Trade Agreements allowing the country to have preferential access to more than 60 countries and their millions of consumers. nationalinvestchile.gob.cl• According to Mineduc 2018, more than 1,262,000 university students matriculate in Chile, with more than 202,000 annual graduates.• Chile facilitates the arrival of overseas professionals and technicians for the tech sector with a Tech Visa Program. During 2018, applications increased by 164%. nationalen.investinbogota.org• Companies located in Bogota have direct access to the US$282 billion Colombian market — one of the largest, most dynamic markets in Latin America.• Bogota has a strategic location in the center of the Americas — ve hours by plane from New York, Mexico City and Sao Paulo. regionalinvestpacifi c.org• Its proximity to more than 72% of the country’s middle class and its strategic location make Valle del Cauca the most cost-ef cient region to serve the domestic market.• The region offers an excellent quality of life at a lower cost than capital cities such as Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago de Chile and Lima. regionalSouth America S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 99Raise your hand if a decade ago you would have predicted that Invest in Bogota would win a Top IPA Award four years running, or that Colombia would emerge as the center of FDI and economic prosperity for the region.Me n either.Yet here we are, and I can personally attest to how utterly and completely they’ve earned it.Consider that the Bogota region accounted for % of Colombia’s GDP in , while being home to only % of Colombia’s population. at’s no accident.Bogota’s GDP grew by . % in the last decade, well ahead of the % Latin American average. at’s no accident.Bogota has the highest average income per person, of all Colombia’s cities. at’s no accident. e city of Bogota has one of the lowest in ation rates in Latin America.In it was . %, considerably lower than cities such as Buenos Aires, Mexico City and São Paulo. at, as you may expect, is no accident. Invest in Bogota (IIB) plays a large role in all this growth. In the last decade alone, Invest in Bogota helped facilitate new projects, with an estimated total investment of more than $ . billion. ese investments created more than , new jobs during the same period.In alone, Invest in Bogota supported the attraction of new investment and expansion projects worth $ million. For every dollar invested by the city in IIB, dollars have been generated in foreign direct investment.For those wondering what makes a Top IPA, it’s that. All of that. Come down and see for yourself.For Invest in Bogota, winning’s no accident.This Investment Profile has been prepared under the auspices of Invest in Bogota. For more information, visit investinbogota.org.INVESTMENT PROFILE:INVEST IN BOGOTAIs No100 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nby ADAM JONE S -K ELLE Ye ditor @ site s ele c tion.c omAccidentInvest in Bogota brought in 43 PROJECTS in 2018, valued at approximately $258 MILLIONBetween 2008 and 2018, Invest in Bogota welcomed $2.3 BILLIONin FDI that has created 35,000 JOBS. %, considerably lower than cities such as Buenos Aires, Mexico City and São Paulo.this growth. In the last decade alone, Invest in Bogota helped facilitate new projects, with an estimated total investment of more than $ . billion. ese investments created more than , new jobs during the same period.attraction of new investment and expansion (continued from p. 89)corporate decision-makers and site consultants, surveying them on which agencies they believed to be the very best in the business. On the following pages we join those corporate end users and site consultants in celebrating the people making the greatest contribution to the vitality of their communities. e Best to Invest Top IPA Awards recognize the professionalism and preparedness, the leadership and staff , the overall success the winning organizations demonstrate each day. ose chosen as some of the world’s Top IPAs accumulated the most points in voting based on the following criteria:• Most professionally responsive to inquiries• Staff possessing the best knowledge and language diversity• Off ering access to user-friendly databases of sites and incentives (general and sector-specifi c)• Readily available information on timing expectations of permitting and other processes• Access to recent investors in the region who can vouch for the area and agency• Best reputation for protecting investor confi dentiality• Reputation for after-care services• Website: Is it easy to navigate, does it possess a wide breadth of data and does it have an effi cient, modern design?We congratulate all of this year’s very deserving winners, in particular those who seem to make this list year after year, such as Dubai FDI, Germany Trade and Invest and CINDE in Costa Rica. We also welcome fi rst-time winners such as AICEP Portugal, ProColombia and Invest in Morocco, who we hope to see continue the outstanding work that so deservedly earned them this praise.Keep up your important work, all. 102 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NCOSTA RICAINVESTMENT REPORTby ADAM BRUNS104 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NCOST A RICA INVESTMENT REPORT:INTRODUCTIONIn an April update, the World Bank observed that Costa Rica now has become an upper middle-income country based on steady economic growth over years. “ is growth resulted from an outward-oriented strategy, based on the openness to foreign investment and gradual trade liberalization,” the World Bank reported. Costa Rica’s GDP per capita has tripled since , and grew an average of .% each year between and , compared to the regional average of .%.One of the main drivers has been a parallel escalation of value found by corporate investors, and value-add by the Costa Rican workforce. at´s why companies begin by assessing the deployment of certain processes and end up integrating end-to-end solutions in this single site. Amazon, Intel and P&G are among the multinationals fi tting that description, and now employ thousands in Costa Rica. More than high-tech multinationals operate in the land of pura vida.Costa Rica has made the global top and been ranked No. in the Americas for number of jobs created per million people. It’s a preferred top destination for knowledge-intensive services including cloud computing and cybersecurity, but also digital creative such as AR and VR. FDI infl ows have grown by an average of .% every year since .Ready for a Challenge e World Bank also noted Costa Rica has the lowest poverty rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, while being the only tropical country in the world that has reversed deforestation. e country appears to be one of those magical places where companies, communities and the environment can thrive simultaneously and interdependently. But it’s not magic. It’s hard work. And rather than rest easy like its huge numbers of tourists, the country aims to reach the next level through strategies that leverage its dynamic scale to provide a collaborative environment for client-centered solutions, becoming in ideal testing ground.At the heart of the Americas, Costa Rica is a clear platform for FDI. Its openness to trade is refl ected in a robust list of free trade agreements that provide preferential access to two-thirds of the world´s markets including the U.S., China and the EU. But its sustainable development leadership globally is increasingly an element which is driving several of the world´s leading companies, including RE´s and CE´s, to see Costa Rica as their partner for success. e country produces % of its energy from renewable sources and during , it ran straight days on clean energy alone. e larger goal? To not only reduce traffi c congestion, but to decarbonize the transportation system, with a goal of leaving fossil fuels entirely behind by . A National Decarbonization Plan calls for electric passenger and freight trains in service by . Costa Rican First Lady Claudia Dobles, an architect and urban planner by profession who was recently recognized among Fortune´s Top world greatest leaders, is leading the charge.KNOWLEDGE S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 105Costa Rica is increasingly known not only for its free zones, but its Blue Zone — a designation conferred by demographers on six world regions known for human longevity. In Costa Rica, that zone is found on the Nicoya peninsula in the province of Guanacaste, where Chanel, among others, is taking advantage of what the BBC calls the region’s “amazing biodiversity, commitment to sustainability and high-tech uptake.”Costa Rica’s National Plan of Science and Technology - focuses on the seven critical areas of earth & space science; nanotechnology and new materials; biotech; natural resources; clean tech; digital tech and health, with goals that include increasing to % the percentage of fi rms with innovation activities and incentivizing private investment in R&D, as well as matchmaking between researchers and private fi rms.People Are the ReasonCosta Ricans already are known for delivering services abroad in languages. But the Costa Rican government announced a strategy in to make Costa Rica a truly bilingual country, setting English as a national priority. Building on a globally respected education system that includes universities and technical high schools, the initiative has a strong chance of achieving its goal quickly and eff ectively.An outside perspective always helps. Just ask the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID).“We have chosen Costa Rica as the fi rst location for the Interaction Design Programme outside of Denmark because the country is home to a staggering percent of the world’s biodiversity,” said CIID. Co-Founder and Director Simona Maschi says CIID has evolved from creating innovation for people to where “we now stand for life-centered innovation — human beings, but also plants and animals. In this transition, we have explored Costa Rica as a natural second home after Copenhagen.” ey’re not the only ones who feel at home in Costa Rica. As the nation’s ambitious, visionary plans come to fruition with the same diverse and robust results as its fl ora, fauna and enterprises, Costa Rica may well fi nd its next level among the elite and model nations of the world. Costa Rica is a fantastic option because of the agility of the country — 5 million people, a progressive government, and dedicated to achieving sustainability in the widest sense. ey are proactive, creative, ready to take risks and super-engaged.” — Simona Maschi, Co-Founder and Director, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction DesignCosta Rica is a fantastic option because of the Costa Rica is a fantastic option because of the agility of the country — 5 million people, a Costa Rica’s future workforce is set to be one of the most educated in Latin America and globallyNote: Numbers inside bars shows global ranking, out of 140 countries. Source: Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey. The Global Competitiveness Report 2018.Next >