Spain has positioned itself as the leading foreign investor in the Dominican Republic at a time when the economic ties between the two countries are being strengthened and confidence in the legal security of the Caribbean state is growing. This is evident from the conclusions of the event “How to invest in the Dominican Republic?”, focused on opportunities for Spanish capital.
The meeting took place at the Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid (ICAM), within the framework of Semana Dominicana en España 2026, and was promoted together with the Cámara Oficial de Comercio de España en República Dominicana. Throughout the session, the speakers emphasized that legal security, regulatory predictability, and alignment of objectives between the parties are “fundamental” for strengthening economic relations between Madrid and Santo Domingo.
In the institutional opening, the dean of the ICAM, Eugenio Ribón, highlighted the role of Madrid’s legal profession in supporting Spanish companies that want to enter the Caribbean country: “We want the ICAM to be their legal bridge and also their reference training center. Chambers know better than anyone the needs of companies; the legal profession knows the rules that protect them. Together we can go much further”.
Along the same lines, the president of the ICAM’s Ibero-American Section I, Yelieny Bidó, stressed the importance of the shared legal tradition to facilitate business between both markets. “From the legal profession, we want to serve as a bridge between law and the company, making it easier for investors’ confidence to translate into real projects. We share a legal tradition that favors understanding and allows building economic relationships based on legal security and mutual benefit,” she said.
After the inauguration, Angélica Noboa, from Russin, Vecchi & Heredia Bonetti, set out the main strengths of the Dominican economic environment, referring to macroeconomic stability, tax incentive regimes, and the principle of equal treatment for the foreign investor—elements that, as she explained, have helped place Spain at the top of foreign investment in the country.
At the first analysis table, moderated by David Heredia, participated Fantino Polanco, from the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santo Domingo; Cristian Molina, from ECIJA; and Carolina Soto, from Squire Patton Boggs Peña Prieto Gamundi. This panel focused on the protection guarantees for investments, the use of commercial arbitration as a means of resolving disputes, and the bilateral tax imposition mechanisms that govern the tax relationships between the two States.
The forum also included a panel dedicated to the energy sector, moderated by José Maldonado Stark, with the participation of Pedro Valdez, of the Official Chamber of Commerce of Spain in the Dominican Republic, and Alejandro Tortosa, of Acciona. In this space, the push for renewable energies in the Dominican Republic and the importance of having a stable and predictable regulatory framework to attract new generation and distribution projects were analyzed.
The experts also highlighted the recent expansion of the Dominican audiovisual industry, which has experienced notable dynamism since the approval in 2010 of its specific incentive framework. This scheme has favored the arrival of international shoots and has boosted coproductions, consolidating the country as an attractive destination for film and television production.
The closing of the event was carried out by Teresa Mínguez, a member of the Board of Government of the ICAM, who insisted that the true scope of a rule lies in its effective compliance and in the real possibility of enforcing it, a necessary condition for generating certainty among foreign investors.
"In a world of tariffs and rules that change from one day to the next, trust has become the scarcest asset and, precisely for that reason, the most valuable. Today, more than ever, Europe and Ibero-America need each other as reliable partners, and Spain, and with it its legal profession, wants to be the bridge that makes it possible," Mínguez said, highlighting Spain’s role as a legal and economic link between both shores of the Atlantic.