Compared to last year, Costa Rica is now a less complicated country for doing business and attracting foreign direct investment, according to the TMF Group ranking. The country moved from 51st to 58th place. According to the methodology, the higher the ranking, the lower the business complexity.
“The decline in the index is an encouraging sign of Costa Rica’s commitment to constantly improving its business environment. We have seen significant progress thanks to infrastructure modernization and government measures that facilitate the operation of foreign companies, strengthening the confidence of investors and trading partners. Continued investment in strategic corridors, the existence and promotion of renewable energy sources, and free trade zones are driving market diversification,” said Adrián Owen, Director of TMF Group for Central America.
In the region, Costa Rica is only surpassed by Honduras, which ranks 66th out of 79 jurisdictions analyzed. In this regard, the most complex country to do business in is Greece, while the friendliest for foreign investment is the Cayman Islands.
The Challenges
Despite the good news, Costa Rica faces a series of challenges to maintain or improve its position as an ideal investment destination. Among them are the appreciation of the colón, bureaucracy, and the human talent gap and competition in some sectors. Another aspect that affects competitiveness is related to the quality of infrastructure.
“Although Costa Rica has two main ports, Moín in Limón and Caldera in Puntarenas, the Juan Santamaría Airport and the Daniel Oduber Quirós Airport, national highways, and the Inter-American Highway, there are challenges regarding their functionality for efficient mobilization, directly impacting local and international companies,” the report adds.
In this regard, Marco Vinicio Ruiz, former Minister of Foreign Trade, called on the PLN and its candidate, Álvaro Ramos, to reconsider their opinion regarding the 4×3 workweek.
This initiative would allow for 12-hour workweeks, four days a week, in exchange for three days off. The proposal is currently stalled due to opposition from the Frente Amplio and the PLN.
Repatriate foreign investment
For Ruiz, the tariffs promoted by the United States and the call to repatriate foreign investment should improve Costa Rica’s competitiveness. “There is a historical debt that transcends political affiliations. It’s been more than 25 years since I was at the Ministry, and we talked about the need for a regulatory framework that would protect companies and workers in productive activities that involve continuous and uninterrupted flows of work. In other words, we’re talking about extremely high-productivity companies that require 24/7 work, and the 4×3 overtime workday is ideal, both for employers and workers (…) We’ve seen how the PLN, or at least an important sector that has historically supported this project, has changed its mind, possibly for political reasons,” said Ruiz.
Human Talent
In an increasingly competitive environment marked by a shortage of specialized talent, companies in Costa Rica face a critical dilemma: while they enthusiastically embrace new technologies and artificial intelligence, many still lack clarity about the skills they truly need.
This is the warning from Joscelyn Calderón Berrocal, Human Talent Manager at RSM Costa Rica, who points out that this disconnect exacerbates constant turnover and the lack of qualified human resources, especially in key sectors such as technology, healthcare, and financial services.
Preview
Between 2024 and the current year, Costa Rica made a significant leap in the Business Complexity Index, according to TMF Group (the higher the ranking, the lower its business complexity).
