INTEL
Still don't believe in the new economy? Take a look at what's happened in Costa Rica over the past 12 months. April marks the one-year anniversary of the first shipment of microprocessors from the first of four production lines at Intel's assembly test plant in the other San José. Already chips have surpassed Costa Rica's traditional exports, coffee and bananas. In fact, Intel's $700 million in exports is double what the nation earned from coffee over the same period and equal to one-fifth of the republic's annual export revenues. Again, that's in one year, firing on one of four cylinders.
None of this is to say Costa Rica's new economy is an unalloyed good. But the swift and total change wrought by Intel in Costa Rica – "a whale in a fishbowl," in one exec's memorable phrase – demonstrates that even if globalization isn't new, our era of globalization is. Consider this: Costa Rica's GNP in 1997 hit $9.5 billion, while Intel's revenues were $25.1 billion.
Costa Rican Exports
| Coffee | $350 million
| Bananas | $600 million
| Microprocessors | $700 million
Sources: Latin America Regional Report; Banco Central de Costa Rica; Intel
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