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The Dominican Republic is usually known as the country leading the tourism industry of Latin America. However, that’s not necessarily the entire picture as the Dominican Republic is increasingly boosting its other sectors such as mining, finance, telecommunications, and infrastructure. Foreign direct investment flowing into the country allows this growth to be sustainable and continue into the future. There are many business factors that provided the foundation for the Dominican Republic’s growth in these various sectors.
While the Dominican Republic economy has traditionally relied on tourism, the mining sector is growing at a quick pace and is playing a significant role in current economic growth. This growth has been made possible thanks to major investments by companies in Canada and Switzerland. More than $3.6 billion have been invested in the construction of mines so far. These construction projects have created 8,500 jobs for the Dominican Republic economy and the mines are projected to sustain an additional 3,500 jobs once the projects are completed.
The banking sector of the Dominican Republic has also been strong and stable after a widespread banking crisis occurred in 2003. Since then, the banking system has improved greatly and is now well-regulated and well-supervised. The finance sector is not the only sector marked with improvements. The Dominican Republic currently has one of the most competitive wireless telecom markets in Latin America making its technology sector very dynamic. Last year, the Dominican Republic had 8.9 million wireless subscribers translating into a market penetration rate of nearly 90 percent. This means that the Dominican Republic, a country considered to be behind in implementation of technology, has made significant strides in the technological sector of its economy. The country is also becoming a major call-center hub for international companies in the United States and other Latin American countries.
The government of the Dominican Republic can also be credited for the country’s economic growth as it has invested heavily in the development of infrastructure projects. Many of these key projects involved the construction of roads and highways that provide improved access to major tourism locations. The first subway transit system built on a Caribbean island was also constructed in the capital city of Santo Domingo. This has provided many benefits thus far for the Dominican Republic including decreased road traffic, reduced pollution, less accidents, and perhaps most importantly, local economic stimulus.
As the Dominican Republic focuses its efforts on improving sectors across the economy, it will become a very important country in Latin America at an international level. It will be interesting to track the improvements in the Dominican Republic over the upcoming years and follow their impacts on other countries throughout Latin America and the world.
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