Abinader is optimistic about the economic future and highlights rare earth reserves

Santo Domingo.- The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, expressed optimism this Friday about the country’s economic future, announced that the Government will install a network of dry ports on the border with Haiti, and highlighted that the nation has a rare earth reserve of over 150 million tons. In his annual address on the state of the nation before the National Congress, he said that dry ports will allow to “energize” the border provinces, regulate trade, strengthen formal exchange with Haiti, which is the second trading partner of the Dominican Republic, and close “definitively the gaps through which goods are currently filtered irregularly”.

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This initiative will mobilize more than 300 million dollars in entirely private investment, added the president, who specified that it is “a strategic State decision to strengthen our sovereignty with development and competitiveness”. When talking about rare earths, he assured that the reserves of 150 million tons will allow the country to ensure its second source of income. “This is the most valuable mining at the moment “because these materials are the raw material needed to build new technologies such as cell phones, semiconductors or chips, the space industry, rockets and missiles of the military industry, among many other uses”, he said in his speech.

Economic Future and Fight Against Corruption

The ruler highlighted that the economic growth in January was 3.5% and that the projections for this year are 4.5%, “data that place us, once again, among the most dynamic economies of the continent and consolidate the Dominican Republic as one of the engines of growth in the region”. At the same time, he emphasized that, according to projections from specialized entities such as Harvard University, the Dominican economy will grow on average 3.8% over the next 10 years. He recalled that recently the tech giant Google announced that it will invest 500 million dollars in the country to build the first International Digital Exchange Port in Latin America “and only the eighth in the world”, while also highlighting the recent signing with the American LOD Holdings to develop a commercial spaceport in the province of Pedernales (southwest), which will involve an investment of 600 million dollars. In another part of his speech and in an energetic tone, he stated that during his term corruption “has no hiding places” nor “complicit silences” and that, as proof of this, he highlighted the actions of his Government against a millionaire fraud detected in the state health insurance company, which the Justice estimates at more than 240 million dollars.

Less poverty and more jobs

In another part of his speech, Abinader pointed out that in the last year general poverty decreased from 19% to 17.3%, while extreme poverty went from 2.4% to 2.2%, citing the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) as a source. Cited data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which indicate that the Caribbean nation has experienced a “significant” reduction in the undernourishment rate, going from 8.3% in 2020 to 3.6% last year. Regarding employment levels, the Head of State said that in 2025, 133,915 jobs were created, so the country registers 5,139,951 jobs, maintaining the open unemployment rate at a minimum of 5.0%. Abinader, who concludes his second term in August 2028, spoke of positive numbers in education, water, environment, sports, technology, security and infrastructure.