When was the first time you read or heard about sustainable development? I remember that in Costa Rica the term was almost unknown and people were very sceptical about it until 22 years ago when the government in office saw the necessity of balancing economic, social and environmental policies through a sustainable development approach. Costa Rica had a series of comparative advantages that were very appealing and could help to attract foreign direct investment, such as political and social stability, an open economy, a well-educated workforce, an extraordinary investment climate, and CINDE , Costa Rica’s top notch investment promotion agency. The government understood that these advantages had to be strengthened in order to attract foreign investors such as INTEL , which in 1997 installed one of its largest manufacturing locations in Costa Rica. The establishment of INTEL introduced a new dynamic in which Costa Rica created a novel investment environment for highly specialised sectors through a sustainability approach. Through public-private partnerships involving government, state universities and companies, a new curriculum was developed to fulfill the private sector’s needs. What followed was the foundation of a solid platform of free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties, in parallel with the modernisation...
Written by Alvaro Cedeño Molinari