U.S. company Medtronic expands facilities in Costa Rica

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Minnesota based Medtronic, a medical equipment technology company, opened its new plant on Wednesday, in Coyol Free Zone*, in the province of Alajuela.

According to the government, this is the largest medical industry company installed in the country. In addition to the new facilities, the company will hire 500 employees.

Medtronic started operations in Costa Rica in 2015. Now with more than 500 employees. The firm manufactures components for medical devices used for spine surgeries, which are sold worldwide.

President Carlos Alvarado attended the opening ceremony.

"As a country, we must focus on a national effort to promote growth and employment decisively," said President Alvarado. "It is a joint effort between the public sector that fosters competitive conditions and the private sector that relies on Costa Rican human talent, which is capable of manufacturing medical devices with innovative technology and exporting them to the world."

According to the Investment Promotion Agency, the global rankings place Medtronic as the number one company in the world in the manufacture of medical devices.

In the country, more than 70 medical companies are developing products for neurology, cardiology or ostomy and orthopedics, said the agency.

"We know that Costa Rica has become an important commercial destination for innovative medical device industry," said Geoff Martha of Medtronic. "The conditions which make the country viable to invest in are qualified human talent, and strategic geographic location. This is what prompted us to expand our operations."

Medtronic has an alliance with the National Learning Institute to train graduates of precision mechanics to complete an additional course of 90 hours exclusive on a Swiss lathe (one of the machines used in the company), in addition to training them on proper documentation practices.

To develop this alliance, the company trained the professors of the Institute. They are in charge of training the students.

Related to Coyol Free Zone, as A.M. Costa Rica previously reported on June, representatives of the business zone, announced that it will open 1,500 new jobs during the next 6 months.

The information was released by Álvaro Carballo, president of Coyol Free Zone, during the visit made to this park by President Carlos Alvarado.

"Our commitment is the generation of quality employment and good salary," said Carballo. "We work on strategies that allow us to be a link between companies and candidates, so we will continue to promote training and recruitment initiatives such as our program Unete a Coyol (be part of Coyol), which allows generating well-being for more than 14,000 employees who work in the companies that are in Coyol Free Zone."

According to Carballo, the estimate of 1,500 new jobs was made with data obtained from the recruitment needs this year of companies located in this business area.

The jobs that will be open are for mechanics, technicians, production supervisors, engineers, and business managers, among others.

Several companies that export medical equipment are located in this business area.

According to figures from the Foreign Trade Promoter, in 2018 Costa Rica exported $3.2 billion in medical devices, of which 63 percent were exported by companies located in the Coyol Free Zone business zone.






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Which other multinational companies should consider investing in Costa Rica? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com

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