In the last 25 years, the Dominican Republic has changed from an economy based on the exportation of agricultural goods, to an economy sustained by the exportation of services. If sugar, coffee, cacao, tobacco and, in a much smaller measure, nickel and gold were the main source of revenue, today we must talk about tourism, free zones, remittances and even baseball players. This transformation was accompanied by the imposed tariffs reform process initiated in 1991, which gradually opened the Dominican market, eliminating some local industry protections, and propelling the competitiveness increase of the entire national productive sector. Consequently, during the last years of the second half of the 90’s, the Dominican Republic experienced an index of annual economic growth of 8%, becoming one of the economies of highest growth in the region and the world.

The incentive of the free zones, supported by the Caribbean Basin Initiative, sponsored by the United States, was specifically oriented to textile production at first. Nowadays, after the challenges posed by the loss of quotas in the American market due to the competition from Asia and Central America, the sector is reoriented, with the advantages derived from the United States, Central-America and Dominican Republic Free Trade Treaty, which was approved in August 2004, and went into effect in 2006. In 2004, the free zones sector contributed the amount of US$4,416,550 millions, while remittances continued making a vital contribution to the economy with US$2,230 millions, in the same year.

At the same time, the Dominican Republic continues to hold its position as the main tourist destination in the Central American region and the Caribbean, generating US$3,180.4, in 2004. The country offers 58,932 hotel rooms.

Telecommunications, where the Dominican Republic already stands out as the home of teleports that offer services to international markets, and the production of cigars, constitute solid supports for the free zone sector. Evidence of the sustained dynamism of the telecommunication sector is the mobile phones density indicator, which, according to the Central Bank, has reached 36.3%, that is to say, that 36 of every 100 people are subscribers of this service.

As a result of a banking crisis and substantial currency depreciation, due to inappropriate internal policies, the debt of the Dominican Republic practically doubled in 2003-2004. Therefore, the country resorted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and renegotiated with other creditors to cover a liquidity insufficiency. The measures adopted since August 2004 have allowed a growth estimated at more than a 4% at the closing of the year 2005 and 4.5% in 2006.