CINDE Confirms Receipt of Official Memorandum of Unilateral Termination of Funding by COMEX
We are confident a path to a solution will be found and we will continue to impact jobs, production linkages, technology transfer, community development outside the greater metropolitan area, and training of Costa Rican talent.
San Jose, May 3, 2023. Yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) announced its unilateral decision to terminate funding for CINDE through the “COMEX-PROCOMER-CINDE Cooperation Agreement for the Design, Implementation, and Monitoring of Foreign Investment Attraction Programs.”
The agreement, signed on August 18, 2010, recognized the value of the three institutions’ joint work and CINDE’s 40 years of experience and efforts.
Year after year for the twelve years of this agreement, now with seven addenda, the excellent results of this partnership between COMEX-PROCOMER and CINDE have been reconfirmed in terms of an improved Costa Rican business climate, new jobs for Costa Ricans, the transformation of the national production system, and encouragement of talent creation, to cite just a few positive impacts.
“At CINDE we have always talked openly with the government with our characteristic spirit of collaboration for the country’s development. We have received COMEX’s notice of its unilateral rescission of the cooperation agreement and its respective funding. CINDE will continue to contribute to the country and we are confident a path to a solution will be found and we will continue to impact jobs, production linkages, technology transfer, community development outside the greater metropolitan area, and training of Costa Rican talent,” said Eric Scharf, President of CINDE's Board of Directors.
Jobs created in 405 multinationals supported by CINDE at the end of 2022:
In 2022, more than 25,300 gross jobs were generated, implying a 12% increase from the previous year and a steady growth of 13% over the last five years.
By 2022, companies attracted by CINDE during the last 40 years have created 181,300 direct jobs and around 74,346 indirect jobs
36 companies were attracted to outside the greater metropolitan area (GMA).
Projects that Impact the Entire Country In 2022, CINDE attracted 40 new companies to the country, ten of which decided to set up operations in communities outside the GMA.
There are now a total of 36 multinationals operating in communities such as Cóbano, Siquirres, Santa Cruz, Liberia, Pérez Zeledón, Turrialba, Orotina, Limón, Nicoya, and San Carlos.
CINDE is a private, non-political, and non-profit association that has been declared of public interest.
Transparency CINDE has received a clean opinion on 12 annual external audits of its COMEX-PROCOMER-CINDE Agreement funds during the last 12 years and clean opinions on more than 44 quarterly and/or three-month audits of its administration of public funds, in addition to other types of controls.
About CINDE CINDE is a Costa Rican agency that has been attracting foreign direct investment to Costa Rica for more than 40 years. It has a history of support for more than 400 multinational companies that have set up in Costa Rica in manufacturing, services, life sciences, and tourism infrastructure. A private, non-political agency declared of public interest, CINDE has been ranked by the International Trade Centre for five consecutive years since 2017 as the world’s top national investment attraction agency.
