All economies have nodes and corridors that maintain local and international commercial activity. A node is nothing more than centers of consumption, industrial production and gathering of agricultural products; in other words, towns and cities. The corridors are the routes used to move goods from the production area to the center of consumption. A similar situation occurs regarding some services, in particular those related to the internet, call centers and other telecommunication technology. It should be obvious that in these cases the nodes are the centers of production and comsumption, while visible trayectory such as the wires and invincible trayectories such as wifi. They transport these services to the consumer. When the nodes are in other countries, a similar situation occurs with the exception that in the producing country, products are taken to seaports, airports and/or official land border crossings.

Nodes in the Dominican Republic

The following map show the nodes and corridors in the Dominican Republic.

The Greater Santo Domingo area is the most important node in the country. Not only is it the largest consumer market and the principal industrial center of the economy, but it also is the destination of all the economic corridors that follow the routes of the country’s highways

Santiago de los Caballeros is the second most important node of the country. This should not be a surprise to anyone, considering that Santiago has the second biggest concentration of inhabitants of the entire Dominican Republic. It also has the second largest concentration of ABC households and this implies a great consumming market. Furthermore, the city forms the center of the highway network in the Cibao Valley. In effect, it functions lime the capital of the Cibao by becoming the greatest inland center of agricultural and industrial production.

The following towns are the third most important nodes of the Dominican Republic.

• Bajos de Haina
• San Cristóbal
• San Pedro de Macorís
• La Romana
• Higüey
• Azua
• Barahona
• San Juan de la Maguana
• Bonao
• La Vega
• San Francisco de Macorís
• Puerto Plata

The fourth most important nodes are the following towns.

• Villa Altagracia
• Cotuí
• Moca
• Esperanza
• Mao
• Nagua
• Hato Mayor
• San José de Ocoa
• Baní

The remaining nodes lack great importance due to their size and production volume for the national economy.

Corridors in the Dominican Republic

It captures the attention the great amount of goods that are transported on the corridors Mao-Santiago-La Vega-Bonao-Greater Santo Domingo, Baní-San Cristóbal-Bajos de Haina-Greater Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís-Greater Santo Domingo. In part this is due to an accumulation of products that are made in the least industrial zones and are addeded to the flow towards the capital along the main corridors. These highways tend to be Juan Pablo Duarte (RD-1), Dr Joaquín Balaguer (RD-1), 6 de Noviembre (RD-2), Of the East (RD-3) and Las Américas (RD-3).

The other explanation for these large corridors is the great production along the areas where they pass through. All the production from The East passes through the San Pedro de Macorís-Greater Santo Domingo corridor. However, the volume of the goods transported between San Pedro de Macorís and Greater Santo Domingo is of such a magnitude that it doesn’t coincides with the productions of La Romana, Hato Mayor, El Seibo and Higüey collected in San Pedro de Macorís. From this we can say that San Pedro de Macoris most like;y is the main center of production in the eastern region of the country. This can be seen on the map with how thick the flow becomes west of San Pedro de Macorís relative to east of the city. A similar situation is noted in the Cibao starting in Mao and in The South starting in Baní.

Imports and Exports of the Dominican Republic

One-hundred-percent of the imports for the entire country passes through the seaports and airports of Greater Santo Domingo. With exports a similar pattern is noticed, but there is a small difference. Some productions are exported through the ports (and airports) in these towns. In parenthesis the products most exported.

• San Pedro de Macorís (hidrocarburos, sugar and molasses)
• La Romana (sugar and molasses)
• Barahona (sugar and molasses)
• Puerto Plata (sugar and some agricultural products from the Cibao Valley)

The Most Productive Provinces

The following provinces concentrates most of the agricultural and industrial production in the Dominican Republic. In the eastern region they are La Romana and San Pedro de Macoris. In the Cibao they are  Monseñor Nouel, La Vega, Duarte, Hermanas Mirabal, Espaillat, Santiago, Valverde and Monte Cristi.  In the southern region they are San Cristóbal and Peravia. These 12 provinces plus Santo Domingo and the National District are the most productive of the Dominican Republic. The remaining 19 provinces have an insignificant production of both, agriculturl and industrial goods. The lack of production intensifies in the provinces of Samaná, Monte Plata, Independencia and Perdernales.

The Development of New Nodes

We know the importance tourism has in the national economy via its impacts on consumption and in wealth creation. Along to that is the improvements tourism has had on the highway network. Knowing all of this, we predict that on the medium to short term new nodes will be created. In the same manner, several existing nodes will experience an increase in size and importance with the increase production and its transport to the new nodes. Without a doubt it can be expected for Sosúa to become one of the principal nodes in the province of Puerto Plata and Cabarete to become a new node of the same province. On the Samaná Peninsula we predict that Las Terrenas will become a node and perhaps will become the most important in the peovince of Samaná. The Atlantic Highway allows Las Terrenas to be connected to the Cibao Valley bypassing the city of Samaná and the town of Sánchez. The area of Juan Dolio in the San Pedro de Macorís province has the potential to become the sixth node. Around Miches in the El Seibo province is expected to become a major tourist destination, taking an area that today is marginal and potentially converted into another node in at least the medium term. The province that will have tge most new nodes is La Altagracia as the Punta Cana, Bávaro, Macao and Úvero Alto continue to develop. To that we can add Bayahibe, though to a lesser degree.