DR has opportunity to attract foreign investment due to COVID-19

The Dominican Republic has the opportunity to attract foreign investment from multinationals that will seek to have their factories close to the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was stated by Ana Arias Urones, Senior Specialist of the Trade and Investment Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), who stressed that in the next six months the country will have the opportunity to take advantage of post-covid-19 recovery scenarios to position itself as a foreign investment destination.

She explained that although this global crisis affects supply and demand, internal trade and investment, new opportunities open up and companies are re-evaluating their global presence reinforcing the trend of new locations.

She specified that after the health crisis 52% of new investment projects scheduled for Europe and Canada seeking location are suspended and 45% continue. And those who plan to relocate look for destinations much closer to the United States market, because it is the largest consumer.

Arias Urones explained that among the economic activities that they plan to relocate are storage and production or manufacturing.

While among the fastest-growing are: life sciences/biotechnology, logistics, and advanced manufacturing.
Urones expressed that these multinationals are in the country to take advantage of the opportunities since investors seek to produce quality goods and services; connectivity or access to markets; competitive prices and security or a good business climate.

“The Dominican Republic has sectors that offer services and products with a wide range and high added value, such as medical products, cosmetics. It is close to the United States and combines quality, labor costs, and adequate logistics, as well as access to water and electricity.”

She also said that the country has good trade agreements with other countries and enjoys legal security and political stability.

Urones, in her speech, said that, however, there are gaps that must be overcome in the short term to take advantage of these investments. Among these gaps, she cited more effort to support exporters and promote local products and goods; take advantage of trade agreements; Reduce bureaucracy in procedures and achieve greater coordination between institutions.

The executive expressed herself in those terms during the video conference “Opportunities for Post Covid Exporters” from the Investment and Export Center of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Embassy in the United States.

On the other hand, Paolo Giordano, chief economist of the IDB’s Integration and Trade Sector, expressed that exporters in the agricultural sector will have to invest in quality and focus on more demanding markets since, in this new normality the prices of agricultural products are depressed, that will affect the margins of exports.