The Dominican Republic leads in receiving foreign direct investment

According to data from the quarterly report prepared by the Secretariat of the Central American Monetary Council (Secmca), the region of Central America and the Dominican Republic (CARD) received a total of US$8.118 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to September 2022.

The quarterly report presents the balance of payments of this organization, corresponding to June-September 2022, and was published on January 16 of this year.

The document details that among the main recipient countries of these resources are the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, which together captured 86.3% of the investment, including intra-regional.

In the Dominican Republic, direct investment flows totaled US$3.190.0 billion, US$779.1 million (32.3%) more concerning January-September 2021, driven mainly by investments in the energy, communications, commercial, and tourism sectors, the report says.

While in the case of Costa Rica received US$2.24 billion in direct investment in 2022, US$361.1 million is equivalent to a lower amount if compared to what was captured in the same period of the previous year.

In Costa Rica, investments in the manufacturing activity of medical equipment and high-technology companies predominate.

Nicaragua attracted US$1.565 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the first 9 months of 2022, 37.8% more than in the same period a year earlier, informed the Central Bank of the Central American country.

In the case of Guatemala, it managed to capture US$801.7 million as foreign direct investment (FDI) flow in the first nine months of 2022.

According to the update of official figures prepared by the Bank of Guatemala, Colombia was the main origin of these resources.

ONE-STOP INVESTMENT WINDOW

Biviana Riveiro Disla, executive director of the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center (ProDominicana), recently informed that the One-Stop Investment Window (VUI) platform and the Foreign Direct Investment Registry are now available.

Both platforms aim to centralize the management and processing of permits, licenses, and certifications required to formalize an investment project in the country through simplifying, standardizing, and automating processes.

“This tool has differentiating elements concerning other similar tools in the region that only concentrate their efforts on disseminating information,” said Riveiro.

Telecommunications, infrastructure, and energy are among the sectors prioritized for channeling procedures through this tool.

In the long term, the Window will continue to include procedures related to other investment sectors, such as agriculture, agribusiness, footwear, film, information and communication technologies (ICT), manufacturing, mining, and textiles, among others.

Riveiro added that they are incorporating more procedures related to the FDI sector, such as Residency for Investment, Foreign Direct Investment Registration, Management of Public-Private Investment Projects, and others.

The tool will allow the reduction of time, elimination of costs, simplification of procedures and processes for FDI, transparency and legal security for the investor throughout the process, monitoring system, alerts, and the Single Investment Registry.

The system has a technical composition headed by the Dominican Republic Export and Investment Center (ProDominicana), which presides and coordinates it, the Ministry of the Presidency, the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP), the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC), and other public and private entities.

With information from Bloomberg