Davivienda Financial Group takes control of HSBC

Bank plans to expand operations in El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.

Colombian bank Davivienda took over this week HSBC Bank operations in Costa Rica, after formalizing the acquisition of its shares last Friday.

Davivienda’s total investment was $300 million for all companies and businesses belonging to Grupo Financiero HSBC in the country, including a stock brokerage firm and an insurance agency.

Efraín Forero, president of the group, believes that Costa Rica is “promised land” for foreign companies in Central America and Colombia. He also confirmed the bank plans to approve personal loans or mortgages “within minutes.”

Davivienda is developing a strategy called “multilatina,” with $25 billion in assets, placing it 26th in the ranking of Latin American banks.

After the Costa Rica venture, the company plans to open businesses in El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.

HSBC’s 800 employees will remain at their jobs.

Posted by Costa Developers

Export sector jobs increased this year

costadevelopers.com

Costa Rica leads Latin America in jobs created by the export sector.

Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) on Monday released a report saying the sector generated a total of 553,690 direct jobs in the past year.

Of that number, firms that export goods employed 413,437 workers (75 percent), 9.4 percent more than in 2011. The services export sector created 140,253 jobs, – 25 percent of total jobs recorded this year.

According to PROCOMER, service companies creating the most jobs are those in tourism (86,137 jobs created), free zones (32,559), information and communications technology (16,557) and medical tourism (5,000).

Of jobs created by companies exporting goods, 47 percent is in the industrial sector and 53 percent is in agriculture.

PROCOMER said the data was obtained from a census of 2,485 companies with exports exceeding $12,000 between July 2011 and June 2012.

The study also noted that 60.6 percent of jobs created by the export sector is attributed to small- and medium-sized businesses, while 19.1 percent is from micro-enterprises. The remaining 20.3 percent was created by large companies.

During the first nine months of 2012, Costa Rican exports grew 8.4 percent, generating revenue of more than $8.5 billion, the study noted.

Costa Rica leads Latin America in jobs created by the export sector, with a figure of 29 percent growth, followed by Chile with 24 percent.

Posted By Costa Developers

Medical tourism fair to offer 1,000 jobs in Costa Rica

costadevelopers.com

Expomed includes lectures and free health consultation for attendees.

Tourism professionals and specialists in plastic surgery, orthopedics, dentistry, nursing and other fields will be among the 1,000 jobs offered at the health tourism fair Expomed 2012.

The fair is organized by the Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rica Medicine (Promed) and will be held on Friday, Oct. 19 (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) and Saturday, Oct. 20 (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.) at the Children’s Museum in San José. Entry will cost ₡2,500 ($5).

Manpower, a recruitment company, will collect attendee résumés, and participants also will get an access code to enter personal data into the fair’s website.

Résumés will circulate among all registered companies and will be filed in the company’s database.

The fair also will offer visitors a pavilion for getting free basic medical care from different clinics and hospitals.

Organizers will hold free lectures on topics such as marketing, global trends in medical tourism, business opportunities, and college studies in health tourism and medicine.

Posted by Costa Developers