OHMCR The Best Costa Rica Travel Guide

One of the latest companies in choosing Costa Rica as their operations center is the digital marketing and advertising development company named digitalArbor.  The company opened with a total of 35 employees and aims to have 500 in the next two years.

The company’s founder, Robert Willms, has worked for over 10 years for one of the top digital marketing agencies in the world which has lead him to create his own company.  After research and evaluating different options, Willms decided to set up his company in Costa Rica due to the country’s valuable human resource and world class training.

In addition, Willms mentioned that the communications technologies as well as the government’s support of foreign investment lead to the final decision of moving to Costa Rica.  digitalArbor is currently located in the Global Park Free Trade Office Center in Heredia and has announced that it will be investing US$2 million over the next two years.

The recently opened company will be competing for young talent with a couple of similar companies that opened in Costa Rica as well a few years ago.  Students from the career areas of graphic design, communications and marketing will have an opportunity to compete for a position at digitalArbor.

The director for the Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives, Gabriela Llobet, pointed out that the arrival of digitalArbor to Costa Rica is also partly due to the excellent performance carried out other companies within the digital marketing industry.  So far, approximately 550 Costa Ricans are working for the digital marketing industry.

written by Carolyn Ramer \\ tags: costa rica digitalArbor, Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives, digitalArbor, Global Park Free Trade Office Center

More and more construction companies in Costa Rica have turned to alternate sources of energy while planning their projects.  Architects and engineers have teamed up to find better ways to use nature’s resources for lighting, heating and cooling.

One of the newest projects to be unveiled and that has used natural resources to create an “intelligent” building is the Cedral Corporate Center.  The construction of this office building was headed by project director Fabian Villa and head engineer Arturo Montero.  These two visionaries started by analyzing the periods and sectors that would require the most amount of energy and worked around that in order to reduce energy consumption to the maximum.

The Center’s structure is heavily represented by windows that allow the maximum use of natural light throughout the day.  In addition, a dual air conditioning system was installed that uses both cold water and ice banks and is able to transfer peak consumption hours to nightly hours.  If there were to be a power failure, the system is able to continue operating thanks to the store energy in its ice banks.

Other projects in the downtown area such as Le Parc residential and office center in La Sabana, have installed solar panels for hot water that will allow for a considerable energy savings.  The developers behind Le Parc have also taken care of the building’s garbage disposal by creating their own recycling program.

The construction company behind the Le Parc building, ICC Projects, has expressed their commitment in strongly introducing green practices within each of their projects.

written by Carolyn Ramer \\ tags: Cedral Coorporate Center, Cedral Corporate Center, Le Parc building

According to one of Costa Rica’s most respected economist, Fernando Naranjo, Costa Rica will not go through a financial crisis this year, nor next year.  Naranjo, who has served as Secretary of State and Minister of the Treasury Department in two different administrations, has publicly stated that despite the international financial crisis, Costa Ricans will not go into crisis.

Although Naranjo does acknowledge that the financial crisis will certainly have its impact on Costa Rica, the country is prepared to confront it.  Naranjo has suggested to follow Keynesian’s economic view in which a country or state should invest during difficult times in order to gain control and expand its economy.

A local newspaper interviewed Naranjo and asked if he wasn’t being way too optimistic in stating that there will be no crisis in Costa Rica to which he responded that the country’s difficult times in the early 80’s was a crisis and that these are better times.

In the early 80’s, the national product had fallen, inflation was at a 60% and the country didn’t have the capacity to pay off its external debt.  The current situation is much different today since the problem is due to external factors and not internal.

Naranjo suggested that in order to confront the future situation, the country should begin by investing specially in infrastructure and by financing social programs.  According to Naranjo, new road systems are extremely important as they can help alleviate difficult times by helping improve the country’s competitiveness in the long haul.

In addition, Naranjo mentioned that Congress should accelerate international loan applications in order to stimulate spending.  Naranjo also highlighted Costa Rica’s privileged position as a top tourist destination.  He agreed on what the Costa Rican Bureau of Tourism is doing in strongly investing in international marketing to increase the country’s international exposure as a tourist destination.

The former Secretary of State’s also suggested to speed up the remodeling and expansion of the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose as well as the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia.  Special emphasis should be placed on tourism as this sector is a strong source in income and employment.

written by Carolyn Ramer \\ tags: Costa Rican Bureau of Tourism, Daniel Oduber International Airport, Juan Santamaria International Airport, No Crisis for Costa Rica