Business Opportunities in the Dominican Republic

Publisher Marketing: With a population of 10 million consumers and a GDP of $98.7 billion, the Dominican Republic (DR) is the ninth largest economy in Latin America and the second largest in the Caribbean region. A middle income country, with a GDP per capita of around $9,600, the economy is based on tourism, agriculture and service industries. The DR weathered the recent global economic crisis quite well. Growth in GDP of 4.5 percent in 2011, which had been fueled by increased indebtedness, declined to 4.0 percent in 2012, in part a result of fiscal adjustments. In the same period, the inflation rate declined markedly from the 7.76 percent of 2011 to a manageable 3.7 percent. The United States represents, by far, the DR's largest trading partner. Fully 43.6 percent of imports into the DR are of U. S. origin, while the U. S. is the destination of 48.8 percent of the DR's exports. The U. S.'s share of the consumer goods imported into the DR is estimated at around 70 percent of the total. There is extremely high receptivity to U. S. goods and services and U. S. product standards are generally accepted. Bi-lateral trade between the United States and the DR amounted to US$ 11.46 billion in 2012, which comprised U. S. exports to the DR of US$ 7.10 billion and imports from the DR of US$ 4.37 billion - a positive trade balance for the U. S. of US$ 2.73. Since the implementation of the Central American and DR Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) signed in March 2007, bi-lateral trade has grown at a robust pace. By 2012, U. S. exports to the DR had grown by 33 percent over the pre-CAFTA days of 2006. Under CAFTA-DR, duties on imports of U. S. products have been eliminated on approximately 80 percent to goods, with the remainder scheduled for gradual elimination in the coming 5 years. The strength of the trade relationship stems from close geographic proximity and the historic cultural and personal ties that many Dominicans have with the United States. This is reinforced by a Dominican diaspora in the U. S. of approximately one million persons, clustered primarily in the northeastern states and Florida, whose remittance payments help support the home-country economy. Dominican businesspersons are frequent visitors to United States and are very familiar with U. S. business practices. In addition, Americans comprised the majority of the five million tourists who flocked to the DR's hotels and resorts in 2012, a figure that the recently-elected government of the Dominican Republic (GovDR) has vowed to double within 10 years.