Direct foreign investment tops US$21.1B in nine years

Santo Domingo.- The flow of foreign direct investment (DFI)into Dominican Republic exceeded US$21.14 billion during the past nine years (2006-2015),mainly in tourism; with just eight European countries accounting for more than US$3.32billion of that.

Spain, the UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, France,Denmark and Germany are the European countries which have contributed thehighest DFI for the Dominican economy, according to figures from the DominicanRepublic Export and Investment Center (CEI RD).

The agency also notes that Spanish investments totaled 52.2%of all DFI by eight European countries, which to September 2015 topped US$1.73billion. The UK ranks as the second major investor among the EU countries, with23.7% and a balance of US$786.4 million just in the first nine months of 2015,followed by Denmark and the Netherlands.

The highest DFI flows from 2006 to September 2015 wereretail and industry (US$4.6B); mining (US$3.83B); real estate (US$3.7B); tourism(US$2.6B), rounded out by electricity, finance, telecoms, free zones andtransport.