Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis in on a five-day trip to the United States, and he's looking to improve foreign direct investments from big-name companies to his country.

Coming to the U.S. has been a priority for President Solis, who has been the Costa Rican president for little over a month. Solis was accompanied with his Minister of Foreign Trade Alexander Mora and Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency President Jose Rossi. According to Solis, his trip is aimed to "attract high and technological companies and other investments that would provide new jobs, new employment opportunities to Costa Rica's highly qualified labor force." The trip is also aimed to "convey a message of trust" in Costa Rica for foreign investors from rates, infrastructure, and education.

In a press conference held in New York City, Solis commented on reports about his country "losing competitiveness" in attracting private enterprises. He said Costa Rica has a record of being a "solid partner" with businesses in comparison to the rest of Latin America.

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The Costa Rican president's trip coincides with Intel's announcement that it is establishing a "Mega Laboratory" in the country. The new laboratory tasks Costa Rican engineers and technicians with authorizing and determining the quality of new Intel products prior to production. The "Mega Lab" will be the latest operation from Intel in Costa Rica. By the end of 2014, Intel forecast 1,500 Costa Ricans on their payroll.

"Intel and Costa Rica have evolved hand in hand in these two decades. The company confirms that the country is a strategic location for its services operations, and moreover, a location for additional valuable activities, such as research, design and development," said CINDE President José Rossi in a statement.

Silicon Valley-based VMWare also announced it will further expand its company in Costa Rica. According to Rossi, the country hosts 250 multinational companies including Amazon, Citi, HP, IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, and Walmart.

When asked about how Costa Rica is prioritizing its tax methods to prevent companies from evading taxes, Solis said a different approach has to happen in his country as previous efforts have failed. He added evasion has to be controlled or "put under some limits." Financial reform talks are reportedly underway between members of the U.S. Congress and the Costa Rican treasury minister. Solis hopes the reforms can be implemented in two years.

Solis also addressed potential concerns about taking job opportunities away from Americans for Costa Ricans.

"Globalization is a two-way street, which the benefits of investments and production which these investments entail benefit both investor as well as the place where the investments are coming from," said Solis. "I think that we have found a very symbiotic ecosystem in which we have been able to establish a win-win strategy between both countries."

Solis added he doesn't want to see investments that would hurt one country to benefit another.

"Costa Rica is a very complementary commodity in the way we are addressing the promotion of our foreign investment ... we are identifying where we have complementary position in placing Costa Rica as an extension of to what the U.S. has in place in those areas where the U.S. needs some extension overseas," Mora told Latin Post.

"In our view, what we're doing in Costa Rica should promote employment in the U.S., because if we use this logic, it shouldn't be a way where what we get is a loss [for the U.S.]. It should be a win-win situation," Mora added.

Solis said that although more tech companies have made expansions in Costa Rica, the country is open for other industries. According to the World Economic Forum, Costa Rica ranked as the top Latin American country for "Innovation and Business Sophistication" in the region.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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