fDi Intelligence: Costa Rica secures #1 spot for FDI overachievers for 2nd consecutive year
With the support of its private investment promotion agency, CINDE, Costa Rica keeps punching above its weight the most when it comes to attracting foreign investors.
fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times specialized in foreign direct investment, is globally recognized for its credible full range of investment promotion and research solutions, granted said recognition to Costa Rica
Costa Rica has once again emerged as the #1 performer in the global foreign direct investment landscape, as it is the country that attracts the most volume of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) relative to its gross domestic product (GDP), achieving a score of 12.7, according to the eighth edition of the fDi Intelligence’s Greenfield FDI Performance Index,
This means that Costa Rica, with its 2022 GDP per capita (PPP) of $25,005, received more than 12 times the number of investment projects expected given the size of its economy, ranking above countries like North Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, Serbia, and Georgia.
Solidifying its position as a top destination for high-tech companies worldwide. Costa Rica retained its position as the country that attracts the most volume of FDI given the size of its economy for second consecutive year. Greenfield FDI Performance Index 2023 by fDi IntelligenceCosta Rica's remarkable ability to consistently exceed expectations is well supported by the team at CINDE, rated the world’s top investment promotion agency by the United Nations International Trade Centre (ITC) for five consecutive years between 2017 and 2022. CINDE has been instrumental in attracting foreign direct investment to the country for over four decades.
In 2022 alone, CINDE facilitated the attraction of an unprecedented 40 new foreign capital investments, setting a record figure for the Agency. Moreover, 61 established companies chose to reinvest and grow their operations within Costa Rica.
These international promotion efforts in diverse markets made it possible for Costa Rica to welcome 11 new companies from seven origins other than the United States. This represents 27% of the total new firms that arrived in the country.
These companies’ countries of origin were: Germany, Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
“Costa Rica was the only country in the Americas to make the top 10. In the three years since April 2020, the Central American country attracted 394 FDI projects, up by about 80% since before Covid-19, according to fDi Markets figures. While tech made up about a quarter of these projects, Costa Rica has attracted the second largest (63) number of medical device projects of any country in the world since Covid-19, ranking just behind the US (71)”, says the article from fDi Intelligence.
