The Dominican Republic - Research Paper

Introduction

The country is located on the Island of Hispaniola which is in the Greater Antilles Archipelago of the Caribbean region. The country occupies the eastern part of the Hispaniola Island. The state covers an area of approximately 48, 445 square kilometers (18,705 sq. mi). This makes it the second largest nation in the Caribbean after Cuba. The approximate population is 10, 648,791(Wordpopulationreview.com). This is according to a census conducted nationally in the year 2016. The people of the country may have grown higher over the past two years, but the approximated number remains the same. In the state, there are 103 males for every 100 females according to another study conducted in 2007. This means that the number of men in the country is higher than that of the women by 3%. This indicates that the population is evenly distributed across the gender lines (Wordpopulationreview.com).

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Demographics

Population Growth Rate

The Dominican Republican has a growth rate of 1.18%

Age Structure

The country's age structure is as follows, the age of between birth and 14 years covers 35 % of the country's total population. Males are approximated to 1, 435, 698 while females are 1, 382,377. The age bracket between 15-64 years covers the highest part of the population. 15-64 years covers 60% of the total population (Wordpopulationreview.com). Males are 2, 452,310 while the females are 2, 379, 991. This population age bracket forms the most appropriate target market which businesses should focus on. The age bracket of those above 60 years old covers slightly over 5% of the total population. The number of males above 65 years is 165, 602 while that of the female above 65 years is 182, 788.

Middle-Class Size

The Dominican idle class constitutes an approximate of 30-35% of the total population. The middle class no longer consists of the small elite at the top as it were in the 1980s. Instead, the middle class in the Dominican Republic includes of shopkeepers, military personnel, government officials, professionals, and teachers as well the most kinds of white collar worker. The middle class resides in cities such as; La Romana, Santo Domingo, Santiago, Monte Cristi, San Pedro, San Francisco de Macoris, Barahoma as well as other smaller towns (Wordpopulationreview.com).

Urban-Rural Composition

The Dominican Republic annual growth rate calculated between 2006-2007 was 1.5%. The population has mentioned earlier is expected to have grown much higher in 2018. However, the ration of males to females is expected to remain unchanged if not slightly since 2006. The population of the country is evenly distributed. In 2007 the population density was calculated to be 498 per sq mi (192 per km square). However, there is a much higher concentration of the population in the urban areas as compared to the rural areas. It is approximated that 63% of Dominicans live in the urban areas while the other 37% reside in the rural areas. This shows that the country's population is evenly distributed unlike in nations whereby most of the people are concentrated on urban areas at the expense of the rural areas.

Government

The Dominican Republic is a democratic republic. There are three branches of power as it is with most democracies. This includes the executive-headed by the president and which executes laws passed by the Congress (Finkel et al. 1855). The president appoints cabinet ministers who form the executive wing of government. The legislature is the other branch of power in the democracy. The institution is bicameral. This means that it comprises of two bodies, i.e., the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The senate has 32 members while there are 178 members of the Chamber of Deputies. The third branch of power is the judiciary. The judiciary is headed by the Supreme Court which has 16 members. The members of the Supreme Court are appointed by a council which is tasked with vetting and recommending the most qualified members to join the 16 member panel of the Supreme Court. The commission is made up of the president, the Supreme Court president, the opposition leader as well as leaders of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Government Stability

The country political system is multiparty. This means that there are some parties which are allowed to participate in free and fair elections held by the country's electoral body referred to as the Central Elections Board (JCE) (Finkel et al. 1855). The electoral body is composed of 9 members. The elections were previously held after every two years interchangeably between presidential elections and municipal and congressional elections. However, this is expected to change especially after a law that passed in 2016 requiring that elections be held jointly. The nature of elections since 1996 has been determined by international observers to be free and fair. This has contributed profoundly to the stability and peace enjoyed in the country. There it is correct to state that the government of the country structure assures stability especially given that no individual party or branch of government has absolute power but rather power is vested on the people through the constitution (Finkel et al. 1855).

Economic Freedom

The economic freedom indicator ranks The Dominican Republic at position 76 in the world and position 16 in the Regional rank. The country has a score of 62.9% economic freedom. The Business environment ranking of the nation has a rating of 5.68 and position 63/82 in the world rank according to the Economist.

Openness to FDI

The Dominican Republic just like most countries in the world have restrictions on foreign direct investment commonly referred to as FDI. The State Department's Office of Investment Affairs is responsible for the various regulations and policies concerning investment both foreign and domestic (Export.gov). The Dominican Republic on Nov 20, 1995, signed into law the Foreign Investment Law (NO.16-95). The law details on the various provisions and policies on foreign investment. The law allows for unlimited foreign direct investment in all sectors of its economy. However, an exception is provided on some ventures. These include any activities which the government would consider to impact negatively on public health and environment; production and distribution of items directly linked to the national security of the country- however, the president can give direct authority to companies venturing into these kinds of items. Lastly, the storage and the disposal of hazardous, toxic and radioactive materials and materials not produced in the country (Export.gov). The government encourages direct foreign investment by offering incentives. Incentives are provided in the film industry, tourism, renewable energy, the industrial sector as well as the Haiti-Dominican Republic border development. The government of the Dominic Republic offers various agencies to assist foreign investors, i.e., the National Council of Free Trade Zones for Export (CNZFE) and the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD). The country is a member of the CAFTA-DR. The CAFTA-DR is a free trade agreement between the United States of America and Central American counties (Export.gov).

Legal System

The legal system in Dominican Republic is derived from the Napoleonic code statues. These statues were introduced back in the period between 18222 and 1844. Civil law, as opposed to common law, is preferred in the country. The legal system is comprised of courts which are headed by judges at the various levels. The judges here and decide cases as opposed to the use of juries as it is the case in Common Law (Djankov 487). The Supreme Court is the first ranked court in the country; the court reviews case whereby there is a battle in the interpretation of laws. The Appeal Court is the secondly rated court. The courts are headed by a single judge who hears and determines verdicts in cases rendered by a court of the first instance. The third level of courts is the Court of First Instance. The court is divided into different chambers which specialized in different cases, i.e., criminal cases, commercial cases and civil lawsuits. The bottom level courts in the legal system are the Peace Courts. The courts are based at each district in the country and are headed by a single judge (Djankov 487).

Currency Convertibility

The currency of the Dominican Republic is the peso whose symbol is "$." However when distinguishing it from other dollars as well as other pesos the symbol used is "RD$." The Dominican peso can be easily interchanged with other currencies at the forex exchange. For instance 1 USD=49.8785 DOP.

Communications Infrastructure

The communication infrastructure in the country includes television, radio, fixed and mobile telephones as well as the internet. The telecommunications infrastructure development is regulated and supervised by the Instituto Dominicano De Telecomunicaciones (INDOTEL) (Nationalencyclopedia).

Fixed Telephone Market

There is an approximate of 1 million fixed lines in use in 2012. Currently, the fixed telephone market is estimated to cover close to 12.49% of the entire telecommunications market.

Wireless Telephone Market

In 2012 9 million users were approximated to use mobile cellular. Today it is estimated that 80.83% of the total population relies on wireless telephone networks (Nationalencyclopedia).

PC Ownership

It is estimated that for every 100 households there is 2.17% using pcs.

Internet Users

Over 6, 504, 998 Dominicans use internet services. There are plans to improved WIFI access to the internet in major cities in the country.

TV Ownership

TV ownership is estimated to be close to 770, 000.

Economics

GDP Growth Rate

The Dominic Republic economy has been ranked the highest in the Caribbean and Central American region. The economy of the country is ranked as an upper middle-income. Financial analysts have indicated that the economy of the country over the past few years has experienced a GDP growth rate of 5.7% in 2015 and 6.6% in 2016. This translates to approximately 19,669 USD. This shows that the increase in the growth of the economy is higher than most middle-income economy countries in the region. The growth of economy mainly relies on the service, tourism as well as the construction sector(Kumar 129). Tourism income has been a major boost for the economy recently. The country has developed itself has the main tourist attraction in the Caribbean. The years between 2015 and 2016 experienced a 6.4% on the total number of tourists. Another major factor that has led to the rapid increase in the growth of the economy is the remittances from the diaspora. In 2013 the total remittances were estimated at 3333 million US dollars. In 2014 the remittances had increased to an estimate of 4571.30 million US dollars (Kumar 128).

Per Capita GDP

The GDP per capita for the Dominican Republic is 6909.10 USD as per 2016. This was a record high as compared to the previous years (Kumar 125).

Consumer Inflation Rate

The consumer inflation rate of the Dominican Republic between 1984-2018 averaged at 14.44 percent. The consumer inflation rate hit its lowest in September 2009 with an index of -1.57 and was highest all-time in 1991 at a rate of 82.49%.

Trade Share of GDP

In 2016 the Dominican Republic recorded a negative trade balance of $8.94B. The country exported $8.72b, and imports were valued at $17.7B. This resulted in the country being ranked position 69th largest export economy in the world (Kumar 125). The country's' top export include; rolled tobacco at $655m, gold ($1.64B), jewelry at $396m, medical instruments valued at $972m and low-voltage protection equipment valued at $402m. On the other hand, top imports of the Dominican Republic include; plastic products ($446m), cars ($891m), petroleum products valued at $1.46B and packaged...