The National Council of Export Free Zones reports that in 2003 the value of exports rose 1.89% compared to exports in 2002. Dominican free zone exports were worth US$4.398 million, up from US$4.317 million in 2002, thus breaking a two-year downward trend. Jeannette Dominguez Aristy made the announcement during the release of the annual statistical report on the free zone manufacturing sector ? Informe Estadistico del Sector Zona Franca en el 2003.
Half of Dominican free zone plants assemble apparel, 16% are dedicated to the service industry, 5% manufacture electronics, 5% tobacco, jewelry manufacturers account for 4%, pharmaceuticals 3% and footwear 2%.
She emphasized that free zone exports make up 80% of the total exports of goods in the Dominican Republic. Contributing to the increase in export value were the areas of electronics, which grew 16%, pharmaceuticals, up 4%, and jewelry, up 2%. Export values for tobacco (-5.4%), apparel (-1.5%) and footwear (-1.2%) experienced declines.
Of the total amount, 77.5% of Dominican free zone exports were shipped to the United States, while Puerto Rico accounted for 15.78%, and UK, Holland, Canada and Haiti each received less than 1% of the total goods.
Dominguez estimated the number of jobs in the free zone industry at 173,367. This is 1.5% up from last year, but 11% less than in 2000, a year when there was a record 195,262 jobs in the free zone industry. There are 54 free zone parks in operation nationwide.
Free zone contribution to the Dominican economy last year was US$810.8 million in wages and services, or 8.5% less than in 2002. The decline is attributed to the depreciation of the peso.
To download the report, go to http://www.cnzfe.gov.do/