This coming February 2025, our firm, DMK Abogados, celebrates its 33rd Anniversary.
As I often say, a happy accident of life led the firm to set up originally in 1992 in the city of Puerto Plata, the country’s tourism capital at the time.
The firm’s second client was Wormser Industries, a textile company from Chicago, whose chairman was Ed Wormser and his VP, Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy hired us and months later hired who would be for many years, the successful VP of the company in the country, Eng. Juan Héctor Díaz. Although Ed Wormser passed away, Juan Hector Diaz runs a successful free zone operation in La Vega, for which we are its lawyers.
Industrial free zones emerged in the Dominican Republic after the enactment of Law 299 of 1968, the first industrial park being set up by Gulf & Western Corp. in La Romana; Delta Brush was the first company in that park, and my father, Enrique De Marchena y De Marchena was the first manager and first President of the first Association of Free Zones (in La Romana).
The country sought to attract foreign investment with business that could be successful with a competitive legal framework and that would generate jobs and foreign exchange, while promoting a healthy export policy.
The country closed the year 2024 with more than US$8,500 million in exports, the most exported products being: medical products, optical and photographic devices, tobacco, electrical appliances, jewelry, clothing.
820 free zone companies currently operate in the country spread over 87 industrial parks with a cumulative investment of US$7,496 million.
At DMK Abogados we have served the industrial free zones since our foundation, from helping companies set up, to obtaining operating permits, to negotiating real estate matters, as well as assisting in tax, labor and litigation issues, to name a few. We have also represented industrial parks in negotiations in their relations with the Customs Department (DGA), among other things.
Several of the new companies that arrived in the country in 2024 (74 new companies) did so with the advice of DMK Abogados. Others continue to be our clients in industrial parks as diverse as PIISA, La Vega, La Romana and Puerto Plata.
We hope that the IFZ industry continues its successful evolution towards higher value-added products thanks to our local workforce that has shown itself ready for the challenge. We are heading for even greater things in 2025.
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