The Texas, U.S.A.-headquartered  Huntsman Corporation, a global chemicals company, opened its Global Business Services (GBS) center for the Americas region in America Free Zone in Heredia Province.

The company, which opened operations in Costa Rica on August 2022, manufactures more than 7,500 products for a wide variety of markets, such as aerospace, transportation, construction, food preservation, energy and fuels among others.

"Costa Rica offers the ideal environment to grow our operations," said Mauricio Gonzalez, Site Leader of Huntsman’s GBS center in Costa Rica. “Here we have security, infrastructure, and a high-quality workforce who are innovative, curious, and motivated. We look forward to hiring people who identify with the values that define our GBS team and our entire company: honesty, responsibility, respect, and integrity are the basis of everything we do."

The new center will support the company's operations, with a focus on activities in the Americas region in addition to certain global activities, optimizing its performance in terms of cost, service, and efficiency. 

They are open job vacancies to hire 100 employees in several areas, including accounting, treasury, credit, human resources, purchasing, automation, continuous improvement and financial planning and analysis.

All vacancies require the proficiency to communicate in English, both in writing and verbally, on business and technical matters. People interested in applying for a job should visit the firm Careers website.

Huntsman is one of many American firms investing in Costa Rica. Last week, the Houston, TX, U.S.A.-headquartered company, Serverless Solutions, opened its first office in the America Free Zone in Heredia Province.

Even though new businesses are creating jobs, the unemployment rate remains at 11.7%, according to the National Employment Survey. The data recorded from October to December 2022, shows that there are more than 287,000 people without registered jobs. Of these, 159,000 are women, making up 55% of unemployed people in the country.

Recently, the government issued nine decrees for implementing Law No. 10234 on "Strengthening of Territorial Competitiveness for Attracting Investment Outside the Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA)," which is an area made up of cities in the outskirts of San José such as Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago.

This week, the rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) upgraded Costa Rica's credit rating.  They increased from a “B” to a “B+” rating. The improvement in the credit rating means that there is less risk for international investors.

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