The executive director of the National Council of Free Zones, Luisa Fernández has announced that in 2017, the export industrial free zone sector grew by 4.4% over 2016 and that 71 new parks were opened with 665 companies in operation.
A report on the accounts for 2017 showed that the investments in the Free Zones grew to US$4,473.1 million, which is a 3.3% increase over the previous year and the number of companies increased by 20 for a 3.1% increase.
She said that 49.2% of the companies were in the northern area, 24.4% in the National District and Santo Domingo province, 14% in the south and 12.5% in the eastern region.
Free zones continued to employ the highest number of direct employees in the Dominican economy with 165,724 workers; technicians and administrative people employed which was a 1.6% increase over 2016. The greatest number of employees was in the textile sector with 40,864 for 24.7% of the total, followed by services with 27,442.
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Diario Libre
21 March 2018
