Costa Rica is widely recognised for its leadership in sustainability and its high quality of life. But how does the country translate this reputation into a credible and competitive proposition for international investors?
We caught up with Adriana Acosta Rivas, Director of Country Brand at The Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER), to discuss how Costa Rica aligns sustainability, talent, and institutional stability with a long-term strategy for attracting high-value investment.
Our interview with Adriana is part of our Costa Rica Spotlight, which we invite you to check out for additional details on the country and its brand strength.
Adriana, Costa Rica is often cited for its sustainability credentials and quality of life. From your perspective, what has been the most important shift in how the country positions itself to international investors over the past few years?
Costa Rica’s international narrative is not based solely on messaging or campaigns. It is supported by measurable results and a long-standing track record in environmental protection — elements that strongly reinforce the country’s vision for sustainability.
Our investment strategy prioritizes companies that value clean energy and align with Costa Rica’s approach to sustainable development.
Rather than treating reputation as a soft asset, we increasingly leverage it as a strategic component of our investment proposition. We demonstrate how sustainability, institutional stability, and highly skilled human talent translate into a reliable environment for sophisticated industries and long-term business operations.
‘essential COSTA RICA’ was designed to span tourism, exports, and investment. How do you ensure that the country brand translates into something concrete and credible for investors making long-term decisions?
For more than 12 years, we have maintained a consistent narrative that has evolved to respond to global trends and specific market targets while preserving the essence and core identity of Costa Rica’s country brand.
The credibility of the brand is rooted in its governance structure. essential COSTA RICA brings together the key institutions that interact with international stakeholders, including those responsible for investment promotion, foreign affairs, trade, and tourism. This ensures that the country’s narrative is aligned with real policies, services, and national priorities.
In addition, more than 1,000 multinational companies have chosen Costa Rica as their home, drawn by the country’s talent and value proposition. These companies have established sectoral hubs that strengthen the nation’s credibility and help potential investors see Costa Rica as a proven platform for growth.
Many countries try to attract all types of investment. How has Costa Rica approached prioritisation — in sectors, capabilities, or types of investors — and what has guided those choices?
Costa Rica has prioritized knowledge-intensive sectors and industries with high levels of technological complexity. Over the years, the country has developed significant expertise in high-value services and advanced manufacturing, particularly in sectors such as medical devices.
Today, Costa Rica has a mature foreign direct investment ecosystem with several highly sophisticated industries. In semiconductors, for example, the country hosts 13 companies in the sector, forming a robust ecosystem that complements other complex clusters such as medical devices.
Over the past three decades, Costa Rica has transitioned from a relatively low level of productive complexity to a highly sophisticated one. The country is home for more than 1,000 multinationals companies, including 90 companies in the medical device sector. This reflects a much deeper integration into complex global value chains than the country had 30 years ago.
Rather than attracting investment indiscriminately, Costa Rica seeks companies that value talent, innovation, and sustainability.
Talent is consistently cited as one of Costa Rica’s strongest assets. How do you think about talent not just as an attraction factor, but as long-term national infrastructure supporting investment?
Talent is the result of long-term national decisions. Costa Rica universalized education in the nineteenth century and abolished its army more than 75 years ago, prioritizing human development. This historical commitment has created a workforce recognized by international companies for its innovation, quality, and adaptability.
For investors, talent functions as a form of national infrastructure that supports innovation and enables companies to scale their operations over time.
Costa Rica’s workforce has extensive experience in advanced manufacturing and high-complexity production processes, along with strong adaptability to sophisticated industrial environments. The country also stands out regionally for its level of bilingual talent, institutional stability, and a free trade zone regime with more than 35 years of proven results. In today’s global context, these factors make Costa Rica particularly attractive for investment.
At the same time, Costa Rica offers advanced professional environments — especially in high-value sectors such as medical devices and advanced manufacturing — while enabling a balanced lifestyle that combines professional growth with access to nature, cultural richness, and a high quality of life.
Sustainability is central to Costa Rica’s narrative, but investors increasingly look for substance over messaging. How do you avoid sustainability becoming a branding claim rather than a strategic differentiator?
For Costa Rica, sustainability is not simply part of the country brand narrative; it is a long-term national strategy.
For decades, the country has integrated sustainability into its development model through policies such as a clean electricity matrix, environmental standards for production, and incentives that helped restore forest cover. Because these actions are embedded in the productive system, sustainability becomes a real competitive advantage rather than a communication message.
Through our products and services, we bring Costa Rica’s values to global markets, emphasizing origin, sustainability, and innovation as core elements of our international positioning.
Costa Rica has been recognised for using data to guide its country brand strategy. How does evidence and performance measurement shape your investment attraction work in practice?
Costa Rica’s country brand strategy is grounded in data and analysis. Benchmarking, perception studies, and sector analyses help identify where the country can compete most effectively.
To support this process, a dedicated commercial intelligence team monitors global trends, analyzes market data, and provides insights that allow the country brand strategy to adapt to emerging opportunities across different markets.
Investment promotion is also guided by clear performance indicators, such as the number of projects attracted and the quality of jobs created. This ensures that the strategy is evaluated not only in terms of visibility, but also through its economic impact.
In addition, perception and positioning studies are commissioned in key markets for investment attraction. These studies help identify, country by country, the sectors with the greatest potential as well as the companies that best align with Costa Rica’s value proposition.
Costa Rica has become a regional base for many global companies. What have you learned from long-term investor relationships that has influenced how you refine the country’s proposition?
The positioning of essential COSTA RICA has been developed over more than 12 years, allowing the country to build and sustain a reputation that we consider solid and credible, largely due to the consistency of its message. The nation brand has successfully articulated Costa Rica’s value proposition as a destination for foreign direct investment.
Long-term investors consistently highlight stability and trust as key factors in choosing Costa Rica. Democratic institutions, legal certainty, and a development model that combines sustainability with productivity have proven to be powerful differentiators.
These lessons have reinforced the country’s brand positioning as a reliable location for companies seeking long-term operations.
Looking ahead to the next five to ten years, what do you see as the biggest strategic challenge — or opportunity — for Costa Rica in maintaining its position as a trusted investment destination?
The key challenge will be maintaining international trust in an increasingly competitive global environment.
Several factors will be critical for the future of investment attraction in Costa Rica. One opportunity lies in continuing to strengthen the country’s leadership in sustainability.
Another will be ensuring that Costa Rican talent develops at the pace required by emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, through ongoing dialogue with companies to better understand their evolving talent needs.
At the same time, in a context of global uncertainty, it will be essential to continue positioning Costa Rica’s institutional stability as a competitive advantage.
Creating the right conditions to further diversify both the origin of investment and the sectors involved will also be crucial. By strengthening these pillars, Costa Rica can continue consolidating its country brand as a trusted destination for global investment.
Thank you, Adriana.
Connect with Adriana Acosta on LinkedIn.
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