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At the Second Dominican Republic International Investment and Nearshoring Forum, hosted by Banco Promerica in Santo Domingo, President Luis Abinader laid out the central economic priorities of his administration Wednesday, placing a swift reciprocal tariff agreement with the United States at the top of his policy agenda. The initiative is designed to lock in advantageous terms for Dominican trade, while protecting the long-standing incentive framework that supports the country’s critical free trade zones and draws new foreign capital to the nation.

Abinader confirmed that negotiations are already underway under the direct leadership of Foreign Minister Víctor “Ito” Bisonó, with the full weight of the Dominican government focused on reaching a final deal as quickly as possible. A core non-negotiable principle for the administration, he emphasized, is preserving the current set of incentives for free trade zones, a major pillar of the country’s economy. Policy consistency, he argued, is the foundation of building lasting investor confidence, and the government has no plans to roll back the pro-business framework that has served the sector well in recent years.
Against a backdrop of persistent global economic and regulatory headwinds that have put particular pressure on free trade zone operations worldwide, Abinader called for coordinated collaboration between the public sector, domestic private enterprises and international investors to navigate these challenges. To strengthen the Dominican Republic’s competitive edge, the administration has prioritized expanding and upgrading the national workforce, a key selling point for global companies looking to nearshore operations.
The president highlighted rapid growth in technical education over his term: the National Institute of Professional Technical Training (Infotep) has expanded its footprint from just 8 training facilities in 2020 to 64 campuses across the country today. Working alongside the Dominican Institute of Technology (ITLA) and other higher education institutions, the government has also integrated specialized training in high-demand fields including digital technology, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to complement traditional technical and university degree programs.
Streamlining regulatory processes to cut red tape for business formation and operation has been another key reform. Abinader noted that the Dominican Republic has already slashed the timeline for securing all necessary investor permits to roughly 12 days, a dramatic improvement that compares favorably to Mexico’s processing time of more than 100 days. Even so, he stressed that the government will continue working to reduce wait times further to improve the country’s investment appeal.
Despite a wave of global economic disruptions over the past several years – from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine and shifting U.S. trade policy – Abinader reported that foreign direct investment into the Dominican Republic has continued on an upward trajectory. He projected that investment levels in 2025 will outperform 2024, building on the steady growth the country has already recorded.
Looking ahead, the Dominican Republic is shifting its investment attraction strategy to target higher-value industries, with a specific focus on technology, semiconductor assembly and medical device manufacturing. Abinader reiterated that sustained progress in education, infrastructure, transportation and regulatory certainty will be critical to upgrading the country’s investment climate to meet the needs of these advanced sectors. He pointed to key ongoing infrastructure projects that are already improving business access: the Santiago Monorail, which directly connects the capital city to its local free trade zone, and the recently completed Avenida Ecológica, which has cut travel time and improved logistics access to the key Caucedo port.
The administration’s long-term ambition, Abinader confirmed, is to address all remaining bottlenecks to investment growth and create the conditions to double the country’s current annual investment levels by 2036.
The forum, which brought together leading international business leaders, included dedicated discussions on emerging opportunities in medical devices, electronics and advanced manufacturing. Attendees highlighted the Dominican Republic’s existing advantages – including its established free trade zone regulatory framework, growing pool of technically trained workers, strategic logistics positioning, and untapped potential to develop local supplier networks and specialized industrial clusters – as key factors that position the country to attract significant new investment in coming years.

As low-cost Dominican airline Arajet presses forward with its strategic expansion plans, the company has marked a key milestone in its commitment to nurturing homegrown aviation expertise: four newly trained first officers and 18 additional cabin crew members have graduated from the carrier’s development programs and officially joined its growing team.

This latest round of hiring is not just a step forward for the airline’s growth, but a core part of Arajet’s long-running mission to bolster the Dominican Republic’s domestic aeronautical sector. By rolling out structured training programs and opening clear career pathways for Dominican nationals aspiring to build careers in aviation, the carrier is addressing gaps in local talent development while creating meaningful professional opportunities for the next generation of industry workers.

At the center of this talent development push is Arajet’s well-regarded Pilot Cadet Program, a collaborative initiative launched in partnership with leading U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing. The program is designed to identify and train promising aspiring pilots from the Dominican Republic, with selected candidates receiving full scholarships that cover the entire cost of their training. Each scholarship carries a total value of more than $300,000 U.S. dollars, removing the significant financial barrier that often prevents talented local candidates from pursuing aviation careers. What sets the program apart further is its guarantee of employment: cadets who successfully complete all training requirements are immediately offered a full-time position with Arajet, creating a seamless transition from education to professional practice.

The four new first officers who officially joined the airline’s ranks this cycle are Adrián De Jesús Troncoso Sosa, Anibal José Báez Alcántara, Emmanuel Neftaly López Peña, and Emerson Ernesto Nang Cruz. Their entry into active service marks the successful completion of years of rigorous training, and demonstrates the effectiveness of the carrier’s talent development model.

Víctor Pacheco Méndez, founding CEO of Arajet, emphasized that the airline’s steady expansion across the Caribbean and Latin American markets is creating tangible opportunities for Dominican workers across every level of the organization. From the day Arajet launched commercial operations, it has prioritized training local professionals to fill roles across all segments of the business, including technical positions, operational roles, administrative positions, and frontline passenger service roles. This focus on local hiring and development, Méndez noted, aligns the airline’s growth goals with the economic development of the Dominican Republic as a whole.

Looking ahead, company leadership confirmed that Arajet will continue investing heavily in human capital development. This ongoing investment serves two key goals: supporting the airline’s ambitious expansion trajectory, and contributing to the evolution of a more robust, self-sufficient aviation ecosystem across the Dominican Republic that can serve the sector for decades to come.

In Barahona, the Dominican Republic’s unique semi-precious stone larimar took center stage at the country’s first-ever Larimar Direct Sales Fair, an event designed to bridge gaps between local mining producers and domestic artisans, jewelry creators, designers, and industry buyers. Organized by the nation’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, the gathering brought together 12 leading larimar producers, and offered attendees a comprehensive look at the stone’s entire production journey, from unprocessed raw material to polished cabochons, cut veneers, handcrafted jewelry, and finished decorative handicrafts.

At the fair, producers put 15,000 pounds of raw larimar up for sale. Final sales data revealed that only 255.16 pounds of the raw stone, equal to just 1.7% of the total raw supply on offer, found buyers. By contrast, consumer and industry demand was far stronger for higher-value processed goods: 7,057.9 grams of semi-finished larimar and 39,761 grams of fully finished jewelry, handicrafts, and polished products were sold over the course of the event. These sales figures paint a clear picture of current market dynamics, confirming that demand remains concentrated in value-added processed products rather than unprocessed raw material.

The event forms a core part of the Dominican government’s broader strategy to strengthen the domestic larimar industry and capture more economic value from the nation’s exclusive natural resource. Golye Latouff, the country’s Mining Promotion Director, emphasized that the fair dispels a common concern that growing larimar export volumes have cut off local artisans from access to raw material. The Ministry of Energy and Mines’ long-term goal is to ensure that expanding larimar mining activity simultaneously lifts up domestic jewelry, handicraft, and related small businesses, so that a larger share of the stone’s total economic profit stays within local Dominican communities.

Beyond market development, new geological research suggests the country’s larimar reserves could be far larger than previously documented. Rolando Muñoz, Director General of Mining, shared that preliminary geological surveys indicate the total larimar deposit area in the mountains of Bahoruco municipal district could be up to four times the size of currently mapped reserves. Government geologists are now conducting targeted drilling operations to more accurately quantify the total resource and map the deposit’s full commercial potential. The final results of this assessment will shape the future trajectory of an industry that supports thousands of workers across the entire value chain, from artisanal miners to lapidaries, designers, and local merchants in the Enriquillo region.

In a major win for the Dominican larimar industry, the stone received global intellectual property protection earlier this year. In July 2025, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) formally registered the Designation of Origin “Larimar Barahona”, granting the uniquely Dominican stone international legal protection. The designation will boost global recognition of the stone’s authentic origin and safeguard it from counterfeit products, cementing the reputation of Barahona larimar as one of the Dominican Republic’s most rare and distinctive natural resources. Looking ahead, the Dominican government is already evaluating plans to host additional direct sales fairs in other regions across the country, with the goal of expanding market access for producers and further strengthening the domestic larimar value chain.