SANTO DOMINGO.- The study "Impact of foreign investment in the Dominican Republic: let's double the investment", reveals that the Dominican Republic was the main recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) among the countries of Central America and the Caribbean in the period 2016-2022, after reaching 18%.
He adds that Costa Rica achieved 17%, Panama with a participation of 15% and Guyana reached 12%, while the rest of the Caribbean had 16%, among others.
"When we look at the contribution of foreign investment flows in the region, 18% of the flows received by Central America and the Caribbean are destined for the Dominican Republic, making the Dominican Republic the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the period 2016-2022," said Alejandro Grisanti, director of Ecoanalítica, the firm that conducted the study.
The findings suggest that between 2016 and 2022, the Dominican Republic received an average of $3.159 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), ranking above countries such as Costa Rica ($3.086 billion), Panama, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
The research was sponsored by the Dominican Association of Foreign Investment Companies (Asiex) and its presentation this week was attended by the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader.
Grisanti stated that the Dominican Republic has received $39.544 billion in foreign direct investment "and this represents 3.8% of GDP.".
When the data for 2022 is considered, the Dominican Republic received 20% of the region's foreign direct investment, falling short of Guyana, which received 22%. Costa Rica also received 19% of FDI in 2022.
Panama also ranked fourth, receiving 13% of foreign direct investment during 2022.
Jobs
The study revealed that the biggest role of FDI in job creation is that 40% of firms with FDI hire more than 150 employees, a range of workers that is captured by less than 2% of the rest of the domestic (non-FDI) firms.
In addition, 23% of FDI companies employ between 11 and 50 employees, 22% employ between 51 and 150 employees, and 15% have a range of 10 workers.
The data suggests that 65,000 direct jobs have been created since the pandemic, representing a 12% increase compared to 2018 versus 8% growth in the private sector that is not part of FDI.
The research reveals that since 2000, the tax contribution of companies with foreign direct investment is $38.26 billion.
Likewise, in 2022 they represented 30% of total tax revenue and 18.8% of social security contributions.
Tax revenue has also increased by 84% in dollar terms since 2018, rising from 2.7% to 3.9% of GDP. It is estimated that, if this trend continues, it could represent 5.7% of GDP by 2028.
With information from Diario Libre.
