-
AETEC starts operations in Costa Rica - AeTec International Inc.
based in Tempe, Arizona, has recently
announced
its plans to open a 25.833 sq ft manufacturing facility located in Zona
Franca Metropolitana. This facility will open on September 28, 1998. Aetec’s
president and CEO, Dan Stuber says that Aetec chose Costa Rica because
of its dedication to development of a high-technology industrial base,
abundant, educated workforce, strategic location and the potential for
future growth in the electronics industry. The first service Aetec
will provide will be Media Cleaning. This process allows handling media
used in clean rooms to be "cleaned" or "recycled" and re-introduced back
into the clean room environment. PC Board Assembly and test services
are expected to be offered in the middle of the first quarter of 1999.
Solder coating will follow later in the year. Aetec is ISO 9002 certified
for these and all of the processes that they offer. This certification
ensures a dedication to continued quality improvement. Aetec’s client
list includes over 30 high tech companies such as INTEL, MOTOROLA, TEXAS
INSTRUMENTS, AVNET and RAYTHEON, among others.15 - Photocircuits Corp. - The company has based a circuit board manufacturing plant here to supply such customers as Chrysler, Ford, Motorola, AT&T, Denso, Panasonic and Compaq. The first phase encompasses a 62,500 square foot facility employing 400 people and an investment of $5 - $8million currently and $30million in the future.10
- Intel - Intel has built a $500 million, 400,000 square foot plant on the outskirts of San Jose with plans for expansion. The company plans to export $700 million worth of Pentium II microprocessors from the factory this year (1998-99).6 The plant is not intended strictly for the South American market, but rather will be one of five test/assembly facilities Intel uses to serve the global market. The building, a "big, long, single story facility" will eventually employ about 2,000 workers.
- Motorola - Motorola's regional headquarters for sales and marketing for Central America is based in San Jose. However, its major Component Products Group's plant will be shut down sometime during 1998. This plant employs 985 people and has been in operation since 1979. A Motorola spokesman emphasized that the decision to close the Costa Rican plant is, "no reflection whatsoever on any type of government decision." Motorola continues to believe that the country is an excellent area for high technology manufacturing.8
Costa Rica’s potential in software exports is estimated in US$500 million. Microsoft, the Interamerican Development Bank and private investors have created a US$50 million fund to finance the development of this Information Technology cluster. The fund will be available before December 98.15
Listed below are six software developing countries that are the key players to the project. Currently, they are active exports to the Americas and have enjoyed support from ORACLE and the Costa Rican Export Promotion organization PROCOMER.
- CODISA
- ArtinSoft
- Sysde
- Soin
- TecApro
- Exactus
Carlos Renalli, General Manager for Microsoft Central America, Emil Weinberg, IDB representative in Costa Rica, Rolando Castro, President of the Chamber of Software Producers of CR and Ronald Jiménez, President of CODISA, made the announcement on the first week of July. Miguel Angel Rodríguez, President of Costa Rica, has offered his support and the cooperation of the Government. Several public universities and the Harvard sponsored INCAE, have signed agreements with this group, the purpose is to properly focus the studies and formation of engineers in related fields.
IDB has assessed Costa Rica as the most developed and fastest growing
Information Technology market in Latin America. Ronald Jiménez,
CODISA, said Costa Ricans can develop a software worth US$2 million in
the United States, for only US$100.000!
- Acer Information Center - Located in the Ultrapark Duty Free Zone, the Taiwan-based company has moved its technical support call center to Costa Rica from San Jose, California.17 This office currently employs a staff of 500 bi-lingual Costa Ricans.
- Unisys - In the summer of 1998, the Costa Rican government hired Unisys Corporation, under a $5 million systems integration contract, to provide the hardware and services for a new, modernized ID plastic card system for 2 million citizens. The ID cards will use biometric security technology to store digital fingerprints. The software's graphical user interface and documentation will be in Spanish.7
