Nicaragua, the poorest country of Central American, hosts many foreign owned plants in its industrial free trade zones (export processing zones). The great majority of these plants belong to the clothing industry and most of them are of Asian capital (Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong). The question considered is if the multinational enterprises of this maquiladora industry - an assembly industry of imported intermediate goods that benefits from a preferential tax and tariff regime – help trigger off a sustainable process of industrial development. This article attempts to give some answers to this question by studying the evolution (1997-2008) of the Nicaraguan plants (some 16 000 workers in 2007) of a big Taiwanese company of the clothing industry: Nien Hsing Textile Co. Our study shows that the Nicaraguan plants of Nien Hsing Textile Co. continue to form, just as in 1998, an enclave. They are cost centres that assemble trousers with imported intermediate inputs (fabric, zippers, buttons, thread, etc.). There are no linkages with local suppliers and the managers and technicians are mostly foreign expatriates. Moreover, the permanence of Textile Nien Hsing Co. in Nicaragua is uncertain because the principal motivation for which it settled in this country is “artificial” (to circumvent US protectionist barriers and to benefit from the tax advantages of the free trade zone after 2009). Since the other Asian clothing enterprises implanted in Nicaragua share many characteristics with Nien Hsing Textile Co., we can fear that they also form a precarious enclave in the host economy. In short, we doubt that this kind of company can play the role of a catalyst in the industrialization of the country as certain researchers and political leaders pretend.