The Deputy Minister for the Promotion of the Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Businesses in the Dominican Republic in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ignacio Mendez, has told Hoy reporter Patricia Reyes that some of the main stumbling blocks for formalizing and developing the “mipymes” were the excessive bureaucracy and the high costs of the legal processes. He added that the high costs of some of the environmental permits were another reason. Nevertheless, he said that the lack of a demand in the market and the difficulty in obtaining financing are other principal problems. He said that these tiny businesses contributed 2.1 million jobs and as much as 27% of GDP. He pointed out that an environmental permit costs “RD$150,000 but the bureaucratic process to obtain it is so costly that the real cost can be closer to a million pesos.”
President Danilo Medina has entrusted well-known business spokesman Ignacio Mendez with the task of finding ways to increase jobs through new backing for small business.