{"id":12675,"date":"2026-10-14T15:42:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dmklawyers.com\/?p=12675"},"modified":"2026-10-14T15:42:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:42:52","slug":"more-than-50-of-free-zone-exports-are-advanced-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmklawyers.com\/en\/more-than-50-of-free-zone-exports-are-advanced-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 50% of free zone exports are advanced manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Diversification in the free zone sector has shifted exports toward more advanced industries: eight years ago, textiles accounted for 55% of the export mix; today, advanced manufacturing represents more than 50% of free zone exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister of Industry, Trade and MSMEs (MICM) Eduardo Sanz Lovat\u00f3n said that medical devices currently account for 35% of exports, while electronic supplies represent 15%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis means that advanced manufacturing accounts for more than 50% of exports. When agro-industrial exports are included, it is clear that our export mix has transformed,\u201d the official said at the \u201cFree Trade Zones, Opportunity Zones\u201d event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the event, attended by President Luis Abinader, Sanz Lovat\u00f3n announced more than 15,000 digital-skills scholarships through TalentUP, supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, Google Cloud, and Cisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanz Lovat\u00f3n said the scholarships have already attracted more than 14,000 applications. They will provide young people with free training in emerging technologies, cloud storage, and cybersecurity, preparing graduates to fill companies\u2019 workforce needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free zone growth and its economic contribution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking at the event, Dominican Association of Free Zones (Adozona) chairperson, Claudia Pellerano, said the sector is becoming more diversified and integrated into global value chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said manufacturing growth has been driven by medical devices and electrical and electronic products, alongside traditional goods such as textiles, footwear, tobacco, and rum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added that logistics services and contact centers are also key components of the free zone sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the end of 2025, these products and services had contributed $8.5 billion to the Dominican economy and supported more than 200,000 direct jobs across 858 companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Free zones therefore contributed value equal to 8.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) last year. \u201cFor every peso in free zone tax expenditure, the economy gained 15 pesos in added value,\u201d Pellerano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the sector\u2019s momentum has continued this year: free zone exports grew 4.4% from January through August 2026, underscoring companies\u2019 resilience amid a complex geopolitical environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On track toward the goal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernando Ocampo, coordinator of the Inter-American Development Bank\u2019s (IDB) \u201cAmerica at the Center\u201d initiative, said rapid technological advances and artificial intelligence have transformed how industries operate worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies report that AI alone can reduce costs by up to 60%, as global supply chains shift toward nearshoring and friendshoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Against this backdrop, Ocampo said the Dominican Republic is on the right path with its RD 2036 Goal strategy, which aims to double the economy\u2019s average growth over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the TalentUP program will help achieve this goal by sharply narrowing the gap between companies seeking skilled talent and workers preparing for increasingly specialized, demanding roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSpecialized talent is the true magnet for investment,\u201d Ocampo said, noting that 87% of executives worldwide view employees with strong digital training as their leading factor for success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts such as Cisco’s Business Development Executive for Latin America and the Caribbean, Caroline Heidrich Seibert, and Google Cloud’s Commercial Director for the Public Sector in Latin America, Gabriel Alvarado, agreed on this, detailing their support for the initiative that seeks to award more than 15,000 scholarships for the training of human talent increasingly oriented towards the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence in a strategic way for companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Diversification in the free zone sector has shifted exports toward more advanced industries: eight years ago, textiles accounted for 55% of the export mix; today, advanced manufacturing represents more than 50% of free zone exports. Minister of Industry, Trade and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investment-in-dr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n