St. Jude Medical is the latest in a long line of established medical device companies coming to Costa Rica.

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St. Jude Medical is investing around $40 million in their new 20,000M2 manufacturing plant in El Coyol de Alajuela, Costa Rica which will employ 500 staff and they are hoping to be up, running and exporting during the second quarter of 2010.

St. Jude Medical is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and “At St. Jude Medical we’re dedicated to developing medical technology and services that put more control in the hands of physicians, and that advance the practice of medicine and contribute to successful outcomes for every patient.”

According to the New York Stock Exchange: “St. Jude Medical, Inc. (St. Jude) develops, manufactures and distributes cardiovascular medical devices for the global cardiac rhythm management, cardiology and cardiac surgery and atrial fibrillation therapy areas and implantable neurostimulation devices for the management of chronic pain. The Company operates in four business segments: Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM), Cardiovascular (CV), Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (ANS).”

Michael T. Rousseau, Group President of the Costa Rica company explained that St. Jude chose Costa Rica for it’s “geographic location, the business environment and the talented workforce” and he added that “We see strong potential for growth.”

Gabriela Llobet, a Director for CINDE, stated that: “After an exhaustive evaluation, the firm chose Costa Rica. Until now, there were no companies manufacturing cardiac products. This confirms our high standards of quality.”

The medical device sector in Costa Rica has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy and now includes 24 companies employing about 6,500 employees

Other companies like Hewlett Packard (who are trying to hire 3,000+ employees in Costa Rica), plus Boston Scientific, Experian, Fiserv, Equifax, Sykes, Amazon.com, Western Union and Proctor & Gamble all recently confirmed that they are hoping to hire thousands of additional staff in Costa Rica over the next few years.

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These types of companies – many of them multi-billion dollar New York Stock Exchange companies – do not invest hundreds of millions of dollars anywhere without having a great deal of confidence in the local business and political environment and, they don’t send their top, very highly paid executives and their families to countries where they will not be safe and secure.

In doing your research into living and retiring in Costa Rica, if you feel it’s absolutely necessary to read all the sensational, bloody headlines that are published by the trashnewspapers then do so but please remember that when you carefully examine the facts, when you do an “exhaustive evaluation” with reputable and objective sources of information, you will probably come to the same conclusion: Costa Rica is very good for business and it’s a great place to live.

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.


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