Chinchilla: Costa Rica Wants to Export Talents, Not People

Former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, gave a rousing speech at Nexus 2016 in San Francisco, highlighting her country’s potential to provide a reservoir of talent and innovation for US companies to draw from.
The former president was personally involved with the initiatives that strengthened high-value operations in the country, which led to positive results. “According to recent data published by the World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Report, Costa Rica now ranks highest among the Latin American countries in training, higher education, business sophistication, and innovation, but also second highest in enabling trade,” she explained to the audience.
Chinchilla continued by explaining that Costa Rica’s value proposal was tied to the culture of its people. “We are people who love people,” she said. “We understand the importance of coming together with those who share our inspirations to bring about common goals. We are conscious of the challenges that lie ahead, but, at the same time, we are convinced that Costa Rica has the fundamental requirements for excelling in the region and in the world.”
Closing her speech, Chinchilla stressed Costa Rica’s ambition to move from “made in Costa Rica”, to “created in Costa Rica”, solidifying her country’s capacity to offer innovative research and development services.
“For countries like Costa Rica, there are only two choices: either we are given the opportunity to export the talent that our people possess, or we will end up exporting the people themselves.”