Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Free Zones Association (Adozona) and the National Council of Export Processing Zones held a press tour Tuesday, to describe the operations of high-tech companies in the Itabo Industrial Park (PIISA), Haina (south).

The Park’s general manager Jose Tomas Contreras said the complex in Haina provides 12,000 direct jobs, with RD$1.3 billion in salaries annually. He said the facility also generates an estimated 39,000 indirect jobs.

The tour began in the Eaton Cutler Hammer Company, makers and designers of breakers for the United States. Eaton produces 300,000 breakers daily, or around 4 million monthly, said Eaton general manager Brinela Gomez. "The production of breakers in the Dominican Republic is competing with China and Mexico."

In the tour with reporters, Gomez said the company’s 3,500 employees are paid a range of salaries, in addition to covering many of their needs such as up to 80 percent of their food and bus fares.

The company’s Community Aid plan built 2 schools, which currently benefits 5,600 children, she said.

ConvaTec’s leading edge technology

Another of the companies included in the tour is the medical products maker ConvaTec, whose factory in Dominican Republic is headed by Bryan Stoyer. He said ConvaTec has 300 employees in the cuotry and plans to expand.

He said ConvaTec is also in the United Kingdom and North Carolina, although only the Dominican plant uses leading edge technology.