The Industrial Association of the Northern Region (Airen) stated that the growth of Cibao’s industrial sector responds to an increasingly integrated productive ecosystem, where local industry, export manufacturing, formal employment and productive chains, consolidating the Northern region as one of the main engines of the Dominican economy.
He pointed out that this strengthening is expressed in the high concentration of manufacturing activity in Santiago and other provinces of Cibao, where a significant part of the country’s installed capacity operates, with the free zones as a structural component of the Northern industrial sector.
“For Airenthe free zones They are not an isolated sector, but an integral part of the industrial fabric of the North, reflecting the real weight of regional manufacturing in employment, exports and the country’s competitiveness,” he expressed Luis José Bonillapresident of Airen.
The union highlighted that this integrated structure has positioned the northern region as a key axis of the national manufacturingwith leadership in subsectors such as tobacco and derivatives, medical devices, clothing, packaging, agribusiness and higher value-added manufacturing, strengthening export capacity.
Airen stressed that the industrial impact of the north is reflected in the formal employment. As of October 2025, the free zones they reached 200,134 jobs direct nationwide, the highest historical record, with an accumulated growth of 67% compared to the lowest point of the pandemic, a significant proportion generated in the Northern Region.
From a broader perspective, Airen indicated that the industrial dynamism of the North generates a multiplier effect by strengthening the demand for local suppliers, transportation, logistics, energy and financial services, expanding its impact beyond industrial parks and contributing to a territorial development more balanced in Northern region.
