President Luis Abinader and Dominican Republic Development: The Territorial Equity Challenge
Under President Luis Abinader, poverty falls while territorial equity emerges as the next frontier for growth. Monetary poverty fell to 17.3% in the Dominican Republic in 2025 and preliminary data show a further decline in early 2026.
The Dominican Republic entered 2026 with its lowest annual monetary poverty rate in a decade. Official figures from the Ministry of Finance and Economy put the rate at 17.3% in 2025, down from 19.0% in 2024, meaning that 172,346 people moved above the monetary poverty line during the year.
The latest data extend that trend. In the first quarter of 2026, the national monetary poverty rate stood at a preliminary 15.4%, compared with 18.1% in the same period of 2025. Those figures describe progress at the national level. The territorial picture adds another dimension.
In 2025, poverty declined across all four macro-regions of the Dominican Republic. The North or Cibao recorded the largest reduction, falling from 14.5% to 11.4%, while the East declined from 18.8% to 16.0%. The South and Ozama also moved downward, although at a more moderate pace.
For President Luis Abinader and the Dominican Republic, this is where territorial equity becomes a development question: not whether every region follows the same economic model, but whether more communities can connect to the infrastructure, services and economic opportunities that support growth.
A national improvement with a local geography
National averages are useful because they show direction. They are less effective at explaining where change is taking place. The Dominican Republic’s 2025 poverty figures illustrate that distinction. Urban monetary poverty declined from 18.3% to 16.5%, while rural poverty fell from 22.8% to 21.6%. The gap has not disappeared, but both moved in the same direction.
Official high-resolution poverty mappings published in 2026 add greater geographic detail to this discussion. Using small-area estimation methodologies developed alongside international technical standards, these tools measure monetary poverty below broad national and regional averages, offering a granular view of how economic conditions vary across the country.
That matters for public policy because development is ultimately experienced locally. A national poverty rate cannot show whether a particular municipality has adequate transport links, whether a producer can reach a market efficiently or whether a community has the services needed to participate in new economic activity. The map can.
Infrastructure matters because distance matters
Territorial equity is often discussed as a question of public spending. In practice, it is also a question of distance. For a producer, distance can mean the time required to reach a market. For a company, it can mean access to logistics, electricity or digital connectivity. For a household, it can mean proximity to education, health care, water, transportation and employment. Infrastructure changes those distances.
This is particularly relevant in a country where economic activity has developed around territories with very different productive profiles. Greater Santo Domingo concentrates a large share of population and services. The Cibao combines agriculture, manufacturing and the economic weight of Santiago. The East contains the country’s largest tourism corridors.
Other territories are developing different routes into the national economy. The objective does not need to be economic uniformity. A more balanced territorial model can emerge from regions that specialize differently, provided they have the connections needed to participate in broader growth.
The South offers a practical test
The southern region illustrates how that process can work. Under the strategy driven by Luis Abinader, new tourism development in Pedernales and Cabo Rojo has directed greater investment attention toward the southwest. But the territorial impact of those projects will not be measured only by hotel rooms or visitor numbers.
Roads, local suppliers, agriculture, transportation, construction, training and services determine how far new economic activity extends beyond the investment itself. This is an important distinction.
A major project can be located in a territory without becoming deeply connected to its economy. Territorial development becomes broader when investment creates links with businesses, workers and communities around it.
The same principle applies elsewhere in the country. Agricultural regions need efficient access to markets. Tourism centers depend on transport and supply chains. Urban areas require mobility, housing and public services capable of accompanying population and economic activity. Different territories require different solutions.
Poverty data show why one model is not enough
The regional figures make that diversity visible. The North or Cibao reached an 11.4% monetary poverty rate in 2025, the lowest among the four macro-regions, after recording the largest annual decline.
The East fell to 16.0%, in a region where tourism and related investment have become major components of the economy.
The South and Ozama also registered reductions in overall monetary poverty, but their trajectories were more gradual.
These differences do not necessarily imply that one region should reproduce another’s development model. They point instead to the importance of building on the productive characteristics of each territory.
For one province, that may mean agriculture and agro-industry. For another, tourism. Elsewhere, manufacturing, logistics, services or digital activity may provide the stronger route to employment and investment.
Territorial equity is therefore compatible with economic specialization. What matters is whether location limits access to the conditions that make those opportunities possible.
The Abinader years and the territorial question
Since Luis Abinader took office in 2020, roads, tourism infrastructure, housing, water systems, health, education and other public investments have formed part of the country’s development agenda.
Their effects should not be attributed exclusively to one administration. Regional development is cumulative, shaped over decades by public infrastructure, private capital, migration, local enterprise and changes in the country’s productive structure.
The current period can nevertheless be evaluated through measurable outcomes.
The national monetary poverty rate reached 17.3% in 2025, its lowest level in a decade. All four macro-regions recorded declines in overall monetary poverty. Preliminary figures for the first quarter of 2026 show the national rate falling further to 15.4%.
Those indicators do not settle the territorial question. They provide a stronger starting point from which to examine it.
For the Abinader administration, the next measure of progress is increasingly about connection: whether infrastructure, investment and services can make economic opportunity accessible from a wider range of places.
Development looks different when viewed from the map
The Dominican Republic is commonly measured through national indicators — economic growth, tourism arrivals, foreign investment, exports and employment. Territorial development adds geography to that assessment.
Can a producer reach a market efficiently? Can a growing community access adequate infrastructure and services? Can investment in an emerging economic center create opportunities for surrounding businesses? Can people participate in economic growth without having to be located in one of the country’s most established corridors? Recent data offer a constructive answer to part of that equation.
Overall monetary poverty declined across every macro-region in 2025, and preliminary national figures point to a further reduction in early 2026.
The latest poverty maps provided by the government and international partners give policymakers a more precise tool for identifying where differences remain below the national average.
For the Dominican Republic, territorial equity does not require every region to become economically alike. It means making geography progressively less decisive in determining access to infrastructure, services and opportunity.
Under President Abinader, the latest poverty figures provide measurable evidence of progress. The longer-term test is whether stronger connections between territories can turn that national improvement into increasingly broad participation in the country’s development.
