The largest and one of the oldest free zones in the Dominican Republic, the Victor Espaillat Mera Industrial Park – owned and operated by the Free Zone Corporation of Santiago (CZFS) – comprises a strategically located area of over a million square metres with a full infrastructure to support manufacturing plants, warehouses, and office buildings. The industrial park also includes a complete array of social services, educational institutions, and other facilities to support the approximately 20,000 people who work for the 174 companies present in the zone.
Opened forty years ago, the industrial park – organised in clusters for improved synergy and efficiency – has managed to keep its leading edge by continuous investment in the upgrading of its facilities. The Free Zone of Santiago has gained a well-merited reputation for the robustness of its services backbone – investors may benefit from the company’s vast reservoir of expertise in the management of industrial facilities.
A driver of the development of free zones, CZFS put in place a framework that allows investors peace of mind: a streamlined and easy-to-navigate regulatory environment ensures that plant operators suffer no distractions from their business pursuits. A non-profit private-public entity created to encourage industrial development, CZFS has made an outsized contribution to the local economy. The CFI.co judges congratulate CZFS on its many accomplishments and the company’s sense of corporate social responsibility. CZFS is named winner of the 2016 Best Location Industrial Free Zone Caribbean Award.