Santo Domingo – The Dominican Republic’s printing industry is a leader in the use of technology in the Caribbean region. Between 60% and 70% of its production processes are digitalized.
In addition, it is positioned as one of the main exporters of its products in the region, only surpassed by the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.
The main export destinations for books, magazines, inserts, and brochures are Puerto Rico and Haiti.
Sales to international trade of Dominican products in this sector averaged US$350 million in the last two years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and MSMEs (MICM).
Participating in the Economic Meeting of the newspaper HOY, the president of the Dominican Association of Graphic and Related Industries (ADIGA), William Calderón, highlighted the great technological advances in the graphic sector, which is why more than half of the companies have converted their offset printing machines to digital, increasing their efficiency. quality and competitiveness.
Calderon said that when new machinery is launched in Europe, especially in Germany, the largest manufacturer of printing machines, the Dominican Republic is one of the first countries to invest in such equipment.
He pointed out that this happens especially in medium and large companies in the sector, while the smaller ones benefit from the sales of machines being changed locally.
He said that there are printing machines in the country that were difficult to see years ago in four-body offset. However, now there are six and even eight bodies, which have great efficiency and speed to print.
The president of Adiga said that despite the advances registered by the printing industry in relation to the use of state-of-the-art machinery, the equipment has many tariffs.
He considered the day when that sector could pay fewer tariffs to be much better.
He said that Law 542-14 on Innovation and Industrial Competitiveness does not benefit this sector because it is composed mostly (90%) of small and medium-sized industries (SMEs) that find it difficult to comply with the requirements of that regulation.
On the other hand, Adiga’s president said there is no productive link between the Dominican printing industry and foreign companies in free trade zones since the latter prefer to import their printing services.
In this regard, Calderon asked the MICM to make the necessary efforts to establish this “match.”