President Abinader promotes DR as ideal location for apparel and footwear manufacturing

[Dolores]

President Luis Abinader presented the Dominican Republic as the ideal destination for textile and footwear industry investments during his participation in the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) Executive Summit on 6 March 2025 in Washington, D.C. He emphasized the country’s competitive advantages in infrastructure, connectivity, and political stability, the Ministry of Foreign Relations reported.

Speaking at the AAFA’s “Global Supply Chain and Trade” conference, Abinader highlighted the Dominican Republic’s thriving industrial and logistics platform, which is leading the way in Latin America and the Caribbean. He noted the country’s market-friendly policies, transparency, and stability, making it an ideal partner for any US business seeking sustainable growth.

“Not only is the Dominican Republic breaking records as a premier tourist...

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[chico bill]

You let the EDE's blow that out of the water with their rolling four hour blackouts.
DR needs real 24/7 power if they intend to attract business

Puerto Rico lost several major pharmaceutical manufacturers and recently a Microsoft software production facility because of constant power issues

 

[windeguy]

Better than the far east? Hardly. Wishful thinking on that industry.

The EDE's just seal the deal as an impossibility.

 

[CristoRey]

Better than the far east? Hardly. Wishful thinking on that industry.

The EDE's just seal the deal as an impossibility.

If they really wanted to fix it, it would have been fixed a long time ago. Not gonna happen. Sad because this country has become full of Ninis (thanks to all of the schools remaining closed when they should have been open) who can really use these jobs.
Just a mess.

 

[tee]

Timberland have had a factory in Santiago since the 80's and has thousands of employees. Also, something that not a lot of people know, the DR produces a huge amount of clothing labels for leading international brands, which is something I hate because so many clothes now come with about three or four labels that you have to rip out, especially Zara, Pull n Bear and Bershka! So annoying!

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

You let the EDE's blow that out of the water with their rolling four hour blackouts.
DR needs real 24/7 power if they intend to attract business

Puerto Rico lost several major pharmaceutical manufacturers and recently a Microsoft software production facility because of constant power issues

As said, previous presidents Leonel and Danilo keep saying "We will promise end blackouts". Fast forward, today is 2025, what happened? Nothing.

Luis is just other muppet. DR will never have true 24/7 electric system.

 

[JD Jones]

Timberland have had a factory in Santiago since the 80's and has thousands of employees. Also, something that not a lot of people know, the DR produces a huge amount of clothing labels for leading international brands, which is something I hate because so many clothes now come with about three or four labels that you have to rip out, especially Zara, Pull n Bear and Bershka! So annoying!

Tiimberland downsized a few years back. I know because in the 80's I was the Operations Manager there, and when they downsized I bought a lot of their warehouse equipment and generators, including a brand new 80 KVA Cummings for pennies on the dollar.

 

[windeguy]

When my wife was a young lass she worked at the mills in La Vega making clothing. Most if not all of that business went to Asia.
Why does anyone think that would ever come back to the DR? That is totally unrealistic.

 

[chico bill]

Doesn't Hanes still make some smaller clothes in DR. I think GAP did too but they are bankrupt and looks to be headed for liquidation.
But there also was American Eagle and they are in the same state of failure as the Gap.

 

[DrNoob]

For cotton apparel, it is quite hard to beat Asian countries, where both cotton, industrial capacity (yarn/weaving etc) and labor is available.
Quite a lot of other processing happens there too. I recently bought an own-brand coffee marked as Costa Rican coffee but was surprised to see that it was processed in India. Some of Kirkland (Costco) stuff gets processed and packed in Vietnam. Nowadays there are not that many electricity-related issues in Asian countries so it is quite hard to move back any manufacturing that went there