The global trend of reshoring by multinational enterprises (MNEs) -which may also affect Costa Rica - might impact on growth prospects through FDI. After the failure of the import-substitution model in fostering domestic industrial development and the global crisis of the 1980s, the country adopted a new' economic paradigm based on global economic integration. By the early 1990s, Costa Rica had started to see the benefits of this new outw'ard-oriented model of development, and became one of the leaders in the region in terms of market openness and liberalisation.