1. The Dominican Republic has reached consecutive record levels of foreign direct investment. What explains this performance, and how does ProDominicana intend to sustain it?
The Dominican Republic's investment performance reflects a broader story of resilience, confidence, and economic diversification. After the disruption caused by the pandemic, FDI recovered from US$2.56 billion in 2020 to a historic US$5.03 billion in 2025, 66.6% above its 2019 level. The momentum has continued in 2026, with US$3.28 billion received during the first half of the year, the highest amount ever recorded for a January-June period.
Just as important as the volume is the composition of these flows. Tourism remains a fundamental pillar, but the Dominican investment story now extends well beyond the traditional sun-and-beach model. In 2025, tourism attracted US$1.29 billion, while energy received US$1.26 billion, alongside significant investment in real estate, industry, free zones, and other productive activities. US$3.03 billion of total FDI represented new capital contributions, while US$1.95 billion came from reinvested earnings, demonstrating both the arrival of new capital and the continued confidence of companies already operating in the country.
Our objective is therefore not simply to attract more investment, but to attract and retain investment that contributes to productivity, technology transfer, talent development, innovation, and stronger linkages with the Dominican economy.
2. How is the Dominican Republic leveraging nearshoring to strengthen its integration into global supply chains?
Geography gives the Dominican Republic an important advantage, but our nearshoring proposition goes beyond proximity. The country combines preferential access to more than 1.2 billion consumers, including the United States and European markets, with eight international airports, extensive maritime connectivity, a mature free-zone platform, and an increasingly sophisticated logistics ecosystem. More than 380 daily flights and over 217,600 air operations were recorded in 2025, while reference maritime transit times are approximately two days to Miami and four days to New York.
Over the past several years, this physical infrastructure has been accompanied by regulatory modernization. Reforms to customs, maritime commerce, public-private partnerships, regulatory simplification, and logistics centers have created a stronger framework for moving goods, establishing operations, and developing integrated logistics services.
Private investment is reinforcing this transformation. DP World continues to expand the Caucedo port and economic-zone ecosystem and, together with Punta Cana Free Trade Zone, has developed the Punta Cana Air Cargo Hub. New international air-cargo services are connecting the Dominican Republic with Europe while positioning Punta Cana as a transit platform for cargo originating across Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. At the same time, investments in Manzanillo and other port, terminal and airport infrastructure are expanding the country's logistics map.
Our objective is to transform geographic proximity into actual productive capability, allowing companies to manufacture, distribute and serve regional and global markets from the Dominican Republic.
3. Which sectors have the greatest potential to transform the Dominican economy and attract international investment?
Our strategy combines the continued development of sectors where the Dominican Republic already has strong capabilities with the progressive expansion into industries of greater technological sophistication and value added.
Tourism and energy each attracted more than US$1.2 billion in FDI in 2025, while free zones continue to provide a proven manufacturing and export platform. Life sciences are particularly illustrative of the country's evolution: the free-zone ecosystem includes 42 medical and pharmaceutical companies, more than 33,400 direct jobs and approximately US$2.36 billion in accumulated investment.
Building from those capabilities, ProDominicana's investment strategy identifies semiconductors, technology and artificial intelligence, electronics, life sciences, automotive and mobility, aeronautics and aerospace, and logistics and distribution centers as activities with significant potential for further development.
The objective is not to replace successful traditional sectors, but to use the capabilities already developed in manufacturing, logistics, tourism, energy, and services as a foundation for economic upgrading. This means attracting projects that generate specialized employment, technology transfer, local supplier development, and deeper participation in global value chains.
4. How does ProDominicana support investors from the identification of an opportunity through establishment and expansion?
ProDominicana accompanies investors throughout the investment lifecycle, combining promotion, facilitation, institutional coordination, and aftercare.
A central instrument is the Dominican Republic's Investment One-Stop Shop, or VUI-RD. Rather than functioning simply as an information portal, it provides investors with a coordinated gateway to government for permits, licenses, certifications and other approvals required to establish, implement, operate and expand an investment project. ProDominicana coordinates the system and provides personalized technical assistance, guidance on requirements, application follow-up, and coordination with participating institutions.
Since the digital platform was launched in 2022, VUI-RD has expanded from 10 integrated procedures and 7 participating institutions to 48 procedures across 26 institutions as of August 2026. It has 692 active users and has provided 897 investor assistance services. The model also progressively incorporates municipalities and local authorities, recognizing that many investment projects require approvals at both the national and local levels.
This facilitation architecture is complemented by ProDominicana's specialized aftercare services for companies already established in the country, as well as by the national Investment Promotion Cabinet, which strengthens interinstitutional coordination for strategic investment projects. ProDominicana also continues to expand its international outreach through missions to priority markets, partnerships with international organizations and investment-promotion activities.
A major example was the Americas Investment Forum 2026, organized by ProDominicana in alliance with the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, WAIPA. The event brought together more than 2,000 participants from 52 countries and representatives of 26 investment promotion agencies. It generated an estimated US$4.15 billion in investment intentions for the Americas, of which 90% corresponded to projects directed toward the Dominican Republic. The total included approximately US$3.17 billion associated with business rounds and US$985.2 million in opportunities presented through the Project Pitch sessions.
Our objective is to provide investors with an institutional partner, not simply a point of contact, supporting them from the initial identification of an opportunity through establishment, operation, expansion, and reinvestment.
5. What opportunities do you see for strengthening investment and economic relations between the Dominican Republic and the Gulf?
We see significant potential because the relationship is already developing across trade, investment, logistics, tourism and high-level institutional engagement.
Between 2021 and 2025, Dominican exports to the Gulf markets included in our trade analysis totaled US$183.5 million, involving 255 product lines and 163 exporters from 13 provinces. In 2025 alone, exports reached US$20.4 million, led by the United Arab Emirates with US$17.9 million, followed by Qatar with US$1.6 million and Saudi Arabia with US$0.4 million. Between January and August 2026, exports reached US$19.5 million, growing 31.2% year-on-year, showing both positive momentum and considerable room to expand and diversify the relationship.
This commercial relationship has been accompanied by sustained investment-promotion efforts. In 2022, the Dominican Republic hosted the Caribbean-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum in Punta Cana, organized through a collaboration between ProDominicana, the Saudi Ministry of Investment and the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies. The forum brought together more than 230 national and international participants and delegations from 15 countries for investment presentations and B2B and government-to-government engagement. This engagement continued in Santo Domingo in 2023, when ProDominicana and the Saudi Ministry of Investment held a bilateral investment meeting with a Saudi delegation of more than 60 representatives and nearly 100 B2B, B2G and G2G meetings focused on areas including energy, tourism, construction, healthcare, logistics, mining and industry.
Relations with Qatar have also advanced through investment and tourism promotion and high-level engagement. In 2024, President Luis Abinader travelled to Doha, accompanied by ProDominicana, participated in the Doha Forum and met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Their discussions included investment, trade and the possibility of establishing direct air connectivity with the Dominican Republic.
Engagement with the United Arab Emirates has likewise gained momentum. President Abinader participated in the World Governments Summit in Dubai in 2026, where both countries agreed to advance a Regional Dialogue of the World Governments Summit for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic. The next edition is scheduled for November 20-21, 2026, in Cap Cana, further strengthening the country's role as a bridge between the Gulf and Latin America.
These efforts are reinforced by the Dominican Republic's diplomatic and consular network through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX). Embassies, consulates and commercial attachés work closely with ProDominicana to support trade and investment promotion, identify opportunities and facilitate connections with investors and business partners. ProDominicana also has a dedicated representative for the Gulf countries based in Qatar, providing a permanent point of contact in the region and supporting continued engagement with public and private counterparts.
We see particularly strong complementarities in logistics and ports, tourism and hospitality, renewable energy, infrastructure, economic and free zones, technology and data centers, agroindustry and food security. For Gulf investors, the opportunity is not limited to the Dominican domestic market. It is the possibility of combining Gulf capital, expertise and global networks with the Dominican Republic's connectivity, preferential market access and position as a platform for the Caribbean and the Americas.
6. What do successful international investors such as DP World, Baxter, Medtronic, and Jabil demonstrate about the Dominican Republic's value proposition?
They demonstrate that international companies can do much more than establish an initial operation in the Dominican Republic. They can grow, reinvest, and integrate the country into their global strategies.
DP World is particularly relevant to Gulf investors. The company has operated in Caucedo since 2003 and had invested more than US$800 million by the end of 2025. A new expansion program announced in 2025 contemplates approximately US$760 million for port and economic-zone development, including around 225 additional hectares and a planned increase in port capacity to approximately 3.1 million TEUs. In 2026, DP World announced another US$100 million for logistics and warehousing infrastructure.
The same confidence is visible in highly regulated manufacturing. The Dominican Republic's medical and pharmaceutical free-zone ecosystem supports more than 33,400 direct jobs and US$2.36 billion in accumulated investment, demonstrating the capacity of the workforce and industrial ecosystem to support sophisticated global operations.
These examples show investors a combination of political and economic stability, preferential market access, a strategic location, established export infrastructure, an experienced workforce, and an institutional commitment to supporting reinvestment and expansion.
7. How is ProDominicana helping Dominican exporters enter new markets, including the Gulf?
ProDominicana supports Dominican companies throughout their internationalization process by combining market intelligence, exporter preparation, identification of potential buyers, trade missions, participation in international fairs, business matchmaking, training, and digital tools that help companies understand market requirements and identify commercial opportunities.
The results reflect a growing and increasingly diversified export base. Between January and August 2026, Dominican exports reached a record US$10.56 billion, an 11.4% year-on-year increase. During that period, 3,629 Dominican companies exported 2,752 product lines to 165 markets, with exports originating from 28 provinces.
The Gulf represents significant room for further diversification. Current trade already includes tobacco products, electrical components, and other manufactures, while recent growth in medical-surgical exports to Saudi Arabia illustrates the potential for higher-value products. We also see opportunities in cocoa and chocolate, specialty foods, agroindustry, and other premium Dominican products.
Our exporter-development ecosystem also includes specialized initiatives such as Women Export+ (Mujer Exporta+), the International Trade Centre's SheTrades Hub, and the WTO-ITC Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund, which complement our broader efforts to expand the number and diversity of Dominican companies capable of competing internationally.
8. What progress has the Dominican Republic made in strengthening legal certainty and predictability for international investors?
Investor confidence depends on both the protection provided by the legal framework and the predictability of the process through which an investment is established and operates.
The Dominican Republic's Foreign Investment Law No. 16-95 establishes national treatment for foreign investors and guarantees the ability to repatriate capital and dividends, complemented by investment protection agreements and investment chapters contained in international agreements.
This framework has been reinforced through a broader modernization agenda. In recent years, the country has updated legislation governing public-private partnerships, regulatory improvement and simplification, customs, maritime commerce, and logistics centers, among other areas. These reforms seek to reduce administrative friction, improve trade and logistics processes, and provide clearer rules for investment.
Institutional mechanisms are evolving at the same time. The Investment Promotion Cabinet, coordinated by the Vice Presidency with ProDominicana serving as secretariat, was designed to strengthen interinstitutional coordination and facilitate investment in strategic sectors. VUI-RD complement this by improving traceability, coordination, and investor access to government procedures.
Confidence can also be observed in actual capital decisions. In 2025, foreign companies reinvested approximately US$1.95 billion in earnings, while new capital contributions reached US$3.03 billion. For us, this combination of legal protection, institutional modernization and continued reinvestment is one of the clearest indicators of investor confidence.
9. What is ProDominicana's long-term vision for positioning the Dominican Republic as a leading investment and business platform in the Caribbean?
Our long-term approach is guided by the FDI Attraction and Expansion Guidelines 2025-2036, which provide a structured framework for moving from investment promotion alone toward a broader model focused on facilitation, expansion, intelligence, and long-term competitiveness.
The roadmap is organized around five strategic pillars, 15 strategic objectives, 27 lines of action and 98 measures and activities. The five pillars are targeted international promotion, investment facilitation, investor expansion and aftercare, investment intelligence, and human-capital development.
The strategy combines the continued strengthening of established industries with the development of new capabilities in areas such as semiconductors, life sciences, electronics, artificial intelligence, digital services, advanced manufacturing, logistics, automotive activities and aeronautics and aerospace.
This is closely aligned with Meta RD 2036, the national objective of doubling real GDP by 2036 through greater investment, productivity, competitiveness, resilience, and stronger institutions.
Our vision is therefore not defined only by the volume of FDI attracted. It is defined by the capacity to translate investment into higher productivity, innovation, stronger local capabilities, and a more sophisticated position for the Dominican Republic within global value chains.
10. What is your message to Gulf News readers considering the Dominican Republic as a destination for investment, business expansion, or travel?
The message is that the Dominican Republic should be viewed not only as a Caribbean destination, but as a platform from which Gulf companies can operate across the Americas.
We combine political and economic stability, preferential access to major international markets, proximity to the United States, an established free-zone and manufacturing ecosystem, increasingly sophisticated logistics infrastructure and opportunities in sectors where Gulf investors have considerable experience, including infrastructure, logistics, tourism, energy, technology and economic zones.
Our tourism performance also demonstrates the scale, connectivity, and service capabilities that the country has developed. The Dominican Republic received a record 11.68 million visitors in 2025, including 8.86 million air arrivals and 2.82 million cruise passengers. That momentum continued in 2026, with 8.56 million visitors in the first eight months of the year, 6.9% more than in the same period of 2025.
At the same time, tourism itself is evolving alongside the broader economy through new destinations, infrastructure, ports, airports, and investment projects.
For a Gulf investor, the Dominican Republic represents more than a domestic market of approximately 11 million consumers. It offers the possibility to produce, distribute, invest, scale, and serve wider markets from a strategically located platform in the Caribbean and the Americas.
DP World already demonstrates that this model can work in practice: a company originating in the United Arab Emirates that established itself in the Dominican Republic, consolidated its operations and continues to expand its presence.
