Costa Rica: main competitive advantages

Costa Rica's main competitive advantages when compared with other countries, based on The Global Competitiveness Report:

• Independency of public institutions and trust on politicians
• Health system
• Quality of education
• Quality of demand conditions (customer orientation and buyer sophistication)
• Labor on-the-job training
• Labor market efficiency
• Business sophistication (innovation, operations and strategy)

Complete Report - Source: World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report - http://gcr.weforum.org/gcr09/

Global Competitiveness Index 2009-2010	55
Basic requirements SubIndex	62
Institutions	47
A. Public institutions	48
1. Property rights	65	D
1.01 Property rights	63	D
1.02 Intellectual property protection	66	D
2. Ethics and corruption	39	A
1.03 Diversion of public funds	44	A
1.04 Public trust of politicians	34	A
3. Undue influence	32	A
1.05 Judicial independence	28	A
1.06 Favoritism in decisions of government officials	34	A
4. Government inefficiency	48	A
1.07 Wastefulness of government spending	37	A
1.08 Burden of government regulation	63	D
1.09 Efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes	55	D
1.1 Efficiency of legal framework in challenging regulations	39	A
1.11 Transparency of government policymaking	48	A
5. Security	77	D
1.12 Business costs of terrorism	51	D
1.13 Business costs of crime and violence	104	D
1.14 Organized crime	76	D
1.15 Reliability of police services	58	D
B. Private institutions	44
1. Corporate ethics	40	A
1.16 Ethical behavior of firms	40	A
2. Accountability	54	D
1.17 Strength of auditing and reporting standards	59	D
1.18 Efficacy of corporate boards	51	D
1.19 Protection of minority shareholders’ interests	47	A
Infrastructure	82
A. General infrastructure	85
2.01 Quality of overall infrastructure	85	D
B. Specific infrastructure	82
2.02 Quality of roads	107	D
2.03 Quality of railroad infrastructure	106	D
2.04 Quality of port infrastructure	128	D
2.05 Quality of air transport infrastructure	71	D
2.06 Available seat kilometers*	74	D
2.07 Quality of electricity supply	40	A
2.08 Telephone lines*	37	A
Macroeconomic stability	101
3.01 Government surplus/deficit*	40	A
3.02 National savings rate*	79	D
3.03 Inflation*	110	D
3.04 Interest rate spread*	114	D
3.05 Government debt*	76	D
Health and primary education	29
A. Health	35
4.01 Business impact of malaria	71	D
4.02 Malaria incidence*	92	D
4.03 Business impact of tuberculosis	27	A
4.04 Tuberculosis incidence*	22	A
4.05 Business impact of HIV/AIDS	43	A
4.06 HIV prevalence*	74	D
4.07 Infant mortality*	54	D
4.08 Life expectancy*	25	A
B. Primary education	29
4.09 Quality of primary education	38	A
4.1 Primary enrollment*	1	A
4.11 Education expenditure*	67	D
Efficiency enhancers SubIndex	58
Higher education and training	44
A. Quantity of education	78
5.01 Secondary enrollment*	70	D
5.02 Tertiary enrollment*	78	D
B. Quality of education	36
5.03 Quality of the educational system	26	A
5.04 Quality of math and science education	55	D
5.05 Quality of management schools	13	A
5.06 Internet access in schools	62	D
C. On-the-job training	28
5.07 Local availability of specialized research and training services	37	A
5.08 Extent of staff training	27	A
Goods market efficiency	47
A. Competition	55
1. Domestic competition	62	D
6.01 Intensity of local competition	54	D
6.02 Extent of market dominance	28	A
6.03 Effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy	52	D
6.04 Extent and effect of taxation	43	A
6.06 Number of procedures required to start a business*	107	D
6.07 Time required to start a business*	114	D
6.08 Agricultural policy costs	38	A
6.05 Total tax rate*	102	D
2. Foreign competition	36	A
6.09 Prevalence of trade barriers	91	D
6.11 Prevalence of foreign ownership	16	A
6.12 Business impact of rules on FDI	20	A
6.13 Burden of customs procedures	70	D
10.04 Imports as a percentage of GDP*	50	A
6.1 Tariff barriers*	40	A
B. Quality of demand conditions	36
6.14 Degree of customer orientation	45	A
6.15 Buyer sophistication	39	A
Labor market efficiency	36
A. Flexibility	24
7.01 Cooperation in labor-employer relations	11	A
7.04 Hiring and firing practices	28	A
7.02 Flexibility of wage determination	70	D
7.05 Firing costs*	62	D
7.03 Rigidity of employment*	49	A
B. Efficient use of talent	58
7.06 Pay and productivity	49	A
7.07 Reliance on professional management	49	A
7.08 Brain drain	16	A
7.09 Female participation in labor force*	110	D
Financial market sophistication	79
A. Efficiency	90
8.01 Financial market sophistication	63	D
8.02 Financing through local equity market	98	D
8.03 Ease of access to loans	63	D
8.04 Venture capital availability	72	D
8.05 Restriction on capital flows	77	D
8.06 Strength of investor protection*	122	D
B. Trustworthiness and confidence	61
8.08 Regulation of securities exchanges	56	D
8.07 Soundness of banks	30	A
8.09 Legal rights index*	71	D
Technological readiness	62
9.01 Availability of latest technologies	74	D
9.02 Firm-level technology absorption	53	D
9.03 Laws relating to ICT	58	D
9.04 FDI and technology transfer	7	A
9.05 Mobile telephone subscriptions*	107	D
9.06 Internet users*	48	A
9.07 Personal computers*	33	A
9.08 Broadband Internet subscribers*	63	D
Market size	77
A. Domestic market size	76
10.03 GDP valued at PPP*	79	D
10.05 Exports as a percentage of GDP*	64	D
B. Foreign market size	76
10.02 Foreign market size index*	76	D
Innovation and sophistication factors SubIndex	37
Business sophistication	41
A. Networks and supporting industries	47
11.01 Local supplier quantity	53	D
11.02 Local supplier quality	33	A
11.03 State of cluster development	60	D
B. Sophistication of firms' operations and strategy	34
11.04 Nature of competitive advantage