The geographical location, stable governments and policies for industrial free zones have allowed the Dominican Republic to become a major player in the manufacture of medical devices in the region as well as in the Americas. Different policies in the United States contributed to this growth, but it was Dominican manpower, executive leadership and government incentives that brought this segment of manufacturing to the country, according to a report in Pharmaboard.
The pharmaceutical industry specialized website explains that the CBI, or Caribbean Basin Initiative, a decades old policy to provide incentives to the economies of the Caribbean region was one step. Another was Section 936 of the United States Internal Revenue Code which provided major tax incentives to Puerto Rico and provided sufficient incentives for joint ventures with the Dominican Republic. When the tax advantages whithered out, the companies shifted everything to the Dominican Republic. Companies such as Medtronic, J&J, Cardinal Health, Baxter, B. Braun, Beckton Dickinson, Edwards and Fresenius Kabe all have one or more facilities within the free trade areas of the country.
William Malamud, the president of the chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce in the DR, said that while the country was primarily known for its exports of commodities, agricultural products and mining, the free zones have become the source of 60% of the total exports nowadays. With freight costs from China soaring to record heights nearly every week, the location of the DR so near to the United States and South America is playing an ever greater role in its industrial policies.
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Pharmaboard
28 June 2021