MICM and ADOZONA present a tool to categorize and connect local suppliers with free zone companies

Santo Domingo. – In order for the local industry to connect and access new business opportunities with free zone companies to boost the country’s economy, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes (MICM) and the Dominican Association of Free Zones (ADOZONA), presented the local supplier categorization tool, which seeks to promote the production chain.

The Supplier categorization project has been developed by ADOZONA together with the Medical Devices Cluster and is part of the Digital Productive Chain program, a public-private alliance between the MICM, the Digital Agenda and the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD) for the digital transformation of MSMEs.

This new service is part of the permanent supplier development program, which will allow local industries to be evaluated, categorized and promoted to supply companies in free zones with high demand for inputs.

For Minister Víctor Ito Bisonó, with the new Supplier Categorization Tool, the MICM and ADOZONA are taking firm steps for the local industry to connect with free zone companies, considering that both are a single muscle that energize the economy of the country, promoting in this way the productive chain, fundamental axis of the ministry’s management.

“We are going to encourage the whole country to produce, and this tool will contribute to the economic integration of the local industry and the MSMEs to the ecosystem of Free Zones”, assured Bisonó.

The President of Adozona, Luís José Bonilla Bojos, assured that the subsector of Medical and Pharmaceutical Devices of Free Zones has become one of the country’s development engines, with an average annual growth rate of 6.7%, positioning itself as the main export item of the Dominican Republic and one of the largest generators of employment and investment.

He added that “this subsector of free zones imports nearly 900 million dollars annually in raw materials and components, so this supplier categorization tool is a great step for the local industry to take advantage of this market.”

The executive vice president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic, AIRD, Circe Almánzar assured that this tool is an important step that will make business opportunities more efficient, commercial exchanges fostering business relationships that quickly become win-win relationships. for local industries and free zones and the country, at the same time that it motivated them to take advantage of this great project.

The process consists of interested companies filling out the online evaluation form, then a technical team validates the information, makes a diagnosis and classification to categorize the company.

“From the ministry we invite companies to be evaluated and if they meet the characteristics to supply, they will be categorized”, explains Bisonó.

In the event that the diagnosis shows that the company does not comply at the moment with all the characteristics to be categorized, a work team will accompany each industry in the design of a step-by-step improvement plan, with specific technical assistance.

The plan establishes that once all the improvements have been applied, the company will be categorized, promoted and connected with companies in the medical device sector to which they can potentially sell.

With this categorization tool, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs seeks to promote the production chain to transform and boost business relationships between anchor companies in sectors with high growth potential with companies that provide required products and services.

According to the performance data of the sector, in 2019 the free zones imported a total value of US $ 3.605 million in raw materials, materials and production components, becoming a market of high interest and great potential for established industries. , which could increase their production by 29%, thus achieving greater job creation.

For the export sector, Free Zones occupy a decisive place in the economic framework, which is why the sector’s relaunch plan and the National Industrialization Plan contemplate a series of pillars to take advantage of and increase its potential and impact on the rest of the economic activities of the country and to achieve it the Productive Chain.

The platform was presented in a virtual transmission through the MICM YouTube channel, in which an introductory workshop to the medical and pharmaceutical devices subsector was also shared, given by Mr. Tulio Martí, consultant to the tool’s development team.