During the last decade, some US$5,620 million have been invested in the Dominican Republic by the Commonwealth countries, which together have become the second largest foreign investors in the country after the United States, according to the president of the Round Table of that organization made up of 54 states.
Fernando González Nicolás, who presides the entity, specified that in the period from 2010 to 2021 the largest foreign investor from those countries was Canada, with an amount of US$5,438.80 million; followed by Great Britain, with US$132 million and Australia, US$49.6 million in mining projects, alcoholic beverages, free zones and other productive lines.
According to data from the Dominican Exporters Association (Adoexpo), more than 90% of exports were concentrated in five countries: Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Likewise, when analyzing the exportable basket to these countries, only five products accounted for 80%, of which gold has a majority share and the remaining 10% between ferronickel, cement, bananas and medical devices.
However, in the period 2019 to 2021 Dominican Republic exported to India a total of US$1,366.1 million to top the list with an increase of 78% from 2021 compared to 2019, and, Canada, for a second position with some US$810.49 million.
In the Caribbean, Dominican Republic exported a total of US$121.80 million (64%) during 2021, finally, Trinidad and Tobago totaled US$103.11 million with a development of 16.1%.
Exports and appreciation of the Dominican peso
In view of the appreciation of the Dominican peso against the US dollar, which has dropped in recent days from 57 pesos to 54 to one, the president of the Dominican Exporters Association (Adoexpo), expressed that they are “observing and monitoring” the situation, because its incidence is due to external events that they cannot control and that the phenomenon is not something usual in the country.
Elizabeth Mena indicated that so far it has not affected the competitiveness of exporters, since they closed February normally as expected and with good resilience to the crisis that is currently affecting the country.
She said “if the appreciation of the local currency continues, it would increase the concerns of the foreign exchange generators, because when selling in dollars and then exchanged into pesos, it would not be so attractive or productive for Dominican exporters.
