The Dominican Republic has the sixth largest free zone park in the world. It has the largest assembly operation in the Central America and the Caribbean. The DR is only surpassed by the industrial free zones in China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. As of December 1997, employed 182,174 workers, of which 104,560 were women. The local industrial free zone textile manufacturing plants employ the most Dominicans, 72.% of the total work force.
