The first time that a Costa Rican company exported softwarewas in 1987 when TecApro sold $500 for twenty copies of a program to customersin Panama and Puerto Rico. Since then, the sales of computer programshas accelerated greatly. Between 2000 and 2008 sales of computer programs from Costa Rica has increased 430%, from $28 millionto $148 million, according to Costa Rica’s Central Bank. This makes it thesecond largest exporter of computer programs in all of Latin America – onlybehind Uruguay’s$219 million.
There are 300 programming firms in the country and theyemploy 3,000 engineers and technicians. Each employee generates approximately$50,000 of value – making it one of the most profitable and efficientindustries in Costa Rica.Additionally, 80% of the funds and earnings generated stay at the local level. Theprograms they create are exported to countries around the world including USA, UK,South Africa and Jordan.
With the arrival of Intel in Costa Rica in 1998, the number ofsoftware firms has increased. Later HP opened a large operation in Costa Ricaproviding computer engineers more avenues of employment, training andmotivation for entrepreneurs.
Currently Costa Rica has 1,300 new software engineers peryear graduating from college and technical schools, however, according toindustry expert Cruz Alfaro, “That is not enough. We need more students andmore students mastering the English language as that is the programminglanguage of the world.”