Costa Rica Business News – The decommissioning of Intel’s manufacturing plant caused quite a change in Costa Rica. For starters, 1,130 layoffs were made as the company moved to Vietnam and Malaysia.
Secondly, the value of circuits and electronic microstructures exported from Costa Rica decreased 30% from 2013 to 2014. Medical devices are now the main Costa Rican goods sold abroad. Intel’s production accounted for 6% of the real GDP.
Intel was able to relocate about 300 people in Costa Rican and another 70 abroad.
It also hired 200 people for its Centre for Global Services and the Center for Engineering, Research and Development, which remains in Heredia.
The company is still shifting to the umbrella of research and an estimated 1,800 direct jobs will be available in June 2015.
The company still sees high potential in Costa Rica and expects increased sophisticated operations.