During an official working visit to Canada, Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Víctor “Ito” Bisonó held a high-profile bilateral meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, where the two sides reached a landmark agreement to launch a targeted trade and investment mission to the Caribbean nation in the first quarter of 2027.
The upcoming mission will bring together a cross-sector delegation that includes senior Canadian federal and provincial government officials, alongside C-suite business leaders from Ontario. The core goals of the trip are to help Canadian stakeholders uncover untapped commercial and investment openings in the Dominican Republic, and build direct, long-term working partnerships with Dominican exporting and manufacturing firms.
In his remarks following the meeting, Bisonó emphasized Ontario’s outsized role as Canada’s economic powerhouse, noting the province’s robust, well-established trade links with the United States that create unique synergies for cross-border collaboration with the Dominican Republic. He underscored the Caribbean nation’s eagerness to draw increased greenfield and portfolio investment from Ontario, with priority focus placed on two high-growth sectors: mining and sustainable energy. The two sides also held detailed talks around frameworks for expanded bilateral energy cooperation that would benefit both jurisdictions.
Beyond attracting inbound investment, Bisonó pushed for greater market access for key Dominican export products in Ontario’s consumer markets, spotlighting the country’s world-renowned premium cigars and aged rum as products with strong growth potential. He added that the existing direct air connectivity links between the Dominican Republic and Ontario create a natural logistical foundation to lower trade barriers and scale up export volumes for Dominican goods.
The meeting also covered the critical enabling role that financial and banking services play in deepening bilateral economic ties, including a discussion of the growing footprint of Canadian financial institutions operating within the Dominican Republic, and how to expand that presence to support increased cross-border trade and investment flows.
Bisonó’s visit to Canada includes a accompanying delegation of leading Dominican private sector leaders, part of a broader, sustained push by the Dominican government to strengthen bilateral economic relations between Canada and the Dominican Republic, and foster deeper integration between the two countries’ respective production sectors.