Motif Inc., a Sunnyvale, California-based outsourcing company, announced they will open a new service center in Costa Rica. The company, which provides customer support, back office processing, research and analytics and online fraud prevention services to Fortune 500 companies, said they intend to invest $2.5 million in the center, which is set to begin operations in January 2010.

“This is a significant milestone in Motif's history,” said Chris Meneze, Motif's president and CEO. “Our new Costa Rica center expands our international footprint and language capabilities, while positioning Motif for further growth.”

Costa Rica continues to be a prime location for outsourcing companies looking to establish bilingual capacity. According to the Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE), Motif is the 83rd business to operate a service center in the country. Motif announced intentions to hire 100 employees in January and as many as 500 when the center is fully staffed.

CINDE reports that service centers employ 24,000 Costa Ricans.

According to Motif, Costa Rica will become another of the company's global delivery centers, joining those in Ahmadabad, India, and Manila, Philippines. The Costa Rican center will be located in the Heredia free trade zone, northwest of San José.

See the Dec. 24 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on free trade zones.