Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) – Costa Rica’s foreign direct investment will return to 2008 levels after falling about 30 percent this year, boosted by tourism and investments in ports and telecommunications projects, said Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the country’s minister of foreign trade.

“I visit companies all the time,” Ruiz said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “They say they are ready to go to Costa Rica, they’re just waiting for the board to approve that.”

Ruiz, 55, is in New York for an event to attract money to the telephone industry, which opened to private investments this year. He will travel to Singapore on Nov. 7 to present bid opportunities for a concession of a port in the Caribbean Sea, which will be the country’s biggest.

Foreign direct investment will be about $2 billion next year, in line with 2008, after plunging this year as the global recession reduced tourism and spurred companies to halt spending plans, Ruiz said. The investment, which accounts for 7 percent of gross domestic product, is the main driver of the Costa Rican currency, he said.

Read the entire article by Fabiola Moura of www.bloomberg.com here…