NEWS
Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster Strengthens to Promote Greater Development and Research Opportunities
- The ecosystem includes more than 90 leading global companies, suppliers, and local entrepreneurs.
- At the close of 2021, devices dominated Costa Rica’s exports, representing 36% of the total export offer and reaching $5.2 billion.
San José, Costa Rica. June 30, 2022. Medical devices
sector companies have joined forces to strengthen and promote
research and development, via creation of the Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster. With support from
CINDE, the initiative will act as one more mechanism to attract investment and position Costa Rica globally in the industry.
The Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster provides support for previous efforts that sector companies had, for years, already been carrying out. The companies’ association, as a joint effort, is also enhanced by Costa Rica’s strategic vision, which declares the
Life Sciences and
Wellness industry, including the medical industry, to be of public interest under Decree No. 42334 S -COMEX-MCSP.
“This cluster’s formation will take advantage of the country's talent and capacity to take the sector to the next level. Our mission will also be to position Costa Rica as a leading nation, not only in manufacturing, but also in design, research, and innovation, all at a global level. “Costa Rica is distinguished for its quality of human talent and, thanks to this, medical devices are the country's main export product. Additionally, Costa Rica’s experience has enabled the industry’s productivity per employee to increase by 58% since 1999, reaching $119,000 per employee,” explained Federico Rivera, president of the Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster.
This cluster brings together the sector’s main companies, which in 2021 dominated 36% of exports in Costa Rica, with $5.2 billion. They also create 43,637 formal jobs in the country. Their formation takes a comprehensive development approach under the pentagram model, which involves strengthening five key sectors in the ecosystem: companies, academia, government, entrepreneurs (startups), and capital investors.
To meet its short, medium, and long-term objectives, the Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster will prioritize its actions in five work areas:
- Strategic approach to developing local suppliers and supporting productive chains;
- Develop specialized human talent;
- Legal certainty paired with a competitive and modern legal framework;
- World-class infrastructure to increase country competitiveness; and
- Research, development, and innovation, including promoting technological ventures.
As part of this formalization process, the Cluster highlighted CINDE’s technical support; the organization will work together with the initiative, both on the governance level and in various working groups.
“We celebrate the establishment of the Costa Rican Medical Devices Cluster, while also sending a signal to the world with what our country is doing in terms of medical devices, thus creating more opportunities for global companies to bet on our country, transcending activities of medical devices design and manufacturing, and into research, development, and innovation,” commented Jorge Sequeira, the Managing Director of
CINDE.
Sequeira added,
“According to the latest report from Investment Monitor (2022), Costa Rica is among the world’s top 5 primary recipients of greenfield medical device projects, behind only Germany, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. These results are possible, among other reasons, thanks to our availability of highly trained and multidisciplinary talent, paired with academia, sector coordination, and the availability of increasingly sophisticated local suppliers, which adhere to the highest standards to meet these companies’ needs.” For information on how to connect with the cluster and its initiatives, please write to
clusters@cinde.org
