National Productive Capacities Gap Assessment of the Dominican Republic

The brief

UNCTAD’s Productive Capacities Index (PCI) is a framework for measuring the inputs, factors, and conditions that enable an economy to produce goods and services and, in turn, to develop. The Satellite SIDS Productive Capacity Index (SPCI) is a recent extension of that framework, adapted to the particular context of Small Island Developing States — where vulnerability to external shocks, narrow productive bases, and constrained capacities are systemic rather than transient features of the economy.

UNCTAD ALDC commissioned this engagement to apply the SPCI to the Dominican Republic, with two objectives: identify the structural constraints on Dominican productive transformation, and inform UNCTAD’s ongoing technical engagement with the country.

Approach

The assessment combines the quantitative SPCI framework with descriptive and qualitative policy analysis. SPCI scores are computed across the index’s component dimensions and benchmarked against comparator economies in the Caribbean and the broader SIDS group. The quantitative diagnostic is then triangulated with national strategy documents, UNCTAD’s earlier country-level work, and the wider literature on Caribbean structural transformation, in order to identify which constraints are binding and which are not.

The work is descriptive and qualitative in character: the aim is not to produce a single ranking or score, but to surface the specific pattern of constraints facing the Dominican Republic in a form that is useful for policy and programming.

Outputs

The final deliverable is a National Productive Capacities Gap Assessment of the Dominican Republic, expected in 2026. It comprises:

• A diagnostic of structural constraints across the SPCI’s component dimensions.
• Comparative benchmarking against regional and SIDS peer economies.
• Policy implications for UNCTAD ALDC’s engagement with the country.

Status

Engagement ongoing. Final deliverable expected in 2026. The assessment will be published as part of UNCTAD ALDC’s country-level analytical work.