In the Dominican Republic, there are approximately 20,000 micro, small, and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) employing more than half a million people. One of the main constraints that these companies currently face is the lack of funding opportunities, with local entrepreneurs encountering bureaucratic challenges and hurdles when wanting to start their own business. Specifically, and in order to provide concrete data, the Dominican Republic ranks 115th out of 190 countries in the Doing Business Report 2020 published by the World Bank.

The main goal of this programme is to improve Dominican SME’s competitiveness in both domestic and foreign markets, thus contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country. This programme is part of the EU’s efforts to support inclusive development and productive capabilities in order to generate quality employment opportunities in the Dominican Republic.

DT Global provided technical assistance to the Ministry for Trade and Industry to promote better coordination between the private sector and public institutions. We also reinforced the capacity of key national institutions, including SIDOCAL (Dominican Agency for Quality) and INDOCAL (Dominican Institute of Quality) in the formulation of standardization policies, while monitoring existing quality standards and guaranteeing these institutions were better aligned with EU-consumer protection.

We supported the government in establishing a National Policy in support of MSMEs and assisted several MSMEs by providing them with capacity building training. All of this was done with a view towards exporting increased numbers of products to Europe.