In the last decade, Costa Rican exports have evolved from the traditional industry to a diverse portfolio of shared services, medical device development, and technology manufacturing through the free zone regime. Today, business parks such as AFZ are becoming hubs for other upcoming skills like design and content creation.
The creative industry is an economic sector focused on exploiting ideas and knowledge. In modern-day society, culture and creativity have gained relevance as companies have found a need for innovation and unique projects to differentiate themselves from competitors. Some popular areas of this business sector are advertising, architecture, design, photography, and video producing, among others.
The exponential growth this industry has had can be sized by imagining that if it were a country, it would be the fourth most important economy in the world, according to the Costa Rican Ministry of Culture and Youth . A particularity of the sector is that it depends on human talent and the registration of intellectual property to succeed. Because of these circumstances, it has quickly become a source of career opportunities, cultural exchange, and globalization.
By involving business operations with a creative point of view, a company can step closer towards a customer-oriented strategy, improve communication accuracy, as well as seem more people-centered. With a graphic or artistic presentation, technical and complex concepts of a product or service can be explained and interpreted more easily by the public.
For enterprises looking to outsource audiovisual services and even appeal to the local market, Costa Rica is an excellent option to do so. As the second easier Latin-American territory to find qualified human talent, the country has its advertising cluster, with over 650 companies within its territory and an $800 million market, according to PROCOMER.
Additionally, the World Economic Forum (2019) found that Costa Rica is the top source of digital abilities in the region. A survey from the Culture Satellite Account found that the creative industry employs around 31.000 qualified professionals and makes up for 1,4% of the country’s total shared services production, with advertising and audiovisual services representing the most added value exported.
Another opportunity for companies looking for film, digital animation, and videogame programming is the upcoming generation of award-winning students and young ‘tico’ entrepreneurs that have recently participated in international fairs. Because of recent events like the before mentioned, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, 2020) considered Costa Rica as the third best global innovation cluster and top culture and Creative Information Technology exporter in LATAM.
Foreign companies looking to work in Costa Rica and recruit local employees can operate in business centers such as AFZ. Where subsidies for Foreign Direct Investments and nonprofit assessment can be obtained from local authorities.
More about AFZ. As an innovative and modern business park, AFZ has created the ideal facilities where knowledge industry-related operations can settle and grow.
AFZ offers flexible office buildings to enable the efficiency of arriving enterprises. It also has beautiful outdoor amenities to bust creativity and stimulate imagination among employees.
Another important quality is that the campus is in the Great Metropolitan Area, where the most amount of English proficient, qualified human talent convenes. As a park known for its shared services cluster and being the host of a robust community of tech industry-leading enterprises, AFZ presents an opportunity for newcomers to learn and benchmark new skills or techniques.
