Nearly 10 years since bailout, some free zones have yet to repay

Dominican Republic.- Some of the Dominican State’s loans givenin 2007 to several free zone companies have yet to repaid in full, despite thenearly 10 years since the bailout.

Dominican Free Zones Association (Adozona) president JoseTomas Contreras on Monday said that the Finance Ministry has issued a statementnoting that the free zone companies have paid around 60% of debts granted bythe State via Law 174-07 dated July 17, 2007.

He said the Finance Ministry itself disbursed the loans, and“actively continues the efforts to collect the outstanding securities withcompanies that for various reasons have had difficulty repaying theircommitments.”

"The total debt paid off today is 18.5 million dollars,representing about 60 percent of the total amount of loans granted in 2007,following the serious crisis affecting the export sector and which put at riskthousands of jobs in several communities in the country," said Adozona,quoted by acento.com.do.

Among the free zone companies that have paid their loansare D’Clase Manufacturing, D’Clase Shoes, Grupo M Industries, American ApparelAssociate, West Point Manufacturing, Dominican Pottery, Notions Dominicana,Margarita International, Global Technology Group, Polanco FashionInternational, Ana Manufacturing, Union Textiles International and QELDominican.