The Ministry of Economy Planning and Development addressed this Monday the main challenges of the Dominican Republic facing the long-term development of the country with the panel “Development Dialogues”.
The conversation, moderated by Minister Pável Isa Contreras, was attended by the former ministers of Economy Juan Themistocles MontasIsidore Santana, Juan Ariel Jimenez Y Miguel Ceara Hattonwho exposed what in their opinion constitute the axes on which the development of the country should rest.
The subject of education, global economic expansion, extreme inequity, climate change and compliance with the laws, were among the topics discussed during the conversation. Each of the economists expressed their opinion on each topic.
Minister Isa Contreras considered that the country has registered long periods of continuous economic expansion and as a result in the last 62 years the real GDP per capita has multiplied by more than six and consumption has also grown remarkably.
“However, like most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic has not been able to take advantage of this economic growth to raise the quality of life of its population in the same proportion, social gaps and inequality have expanded. , we have dramatically eroded our natural capital and our democratic institutions, although they have been stable, they remain somewhat fragile and do not yet provide enough space for people to exercise the right to participate fully in the construction of their own future”, affirmed the official.
That affirmation, he said, can be verified in six elements that are “a persistent poverty; exacerbated levels of income and wealth inequality; high levels of power inequality; significant gender gaps; unsustainable production and consumption patterns and a still fragile democratic institutionality”.
“The challenge is not only to achieve greater well-being for the people, but for democracy, because to the extent that people see their expectations of living a decent life frustrated and perceive the State as incapable of solving fundamental problems, the foundations of institutional arrangements will be challenged and not always in the direction of building more democracy and more balanced power arrangements, but also, as we have seen in other countries, betting on authoritarian models”, said Isa Contreras.
former minister John Ariel Jimenez He spoke of the need for the Dominican Republic to be inserted into the global value chain, facilitate doing business in the country, in addition to the transformation of small productive units and businesses into more dynamic productive units.
Also, he emphasized early childhood care and the training of teaching staff and especially directors as a way to start.
“I believe that without neglecting that we still have a challenge in coverage, the great challenge that we have as a country is quality and there is coverage that can have a great impact on quality and that is special attention to early childhood”, Jimenez said.
Themistocles Montas considered important macroeconomic stability and the need to increase savings to boost investment coefficient, in addition to compliance with laws, especially those that have to do with environmental protection to prevent rivers and protected areas from being depredated.
“Here there is very clear legislation and the problem is that the laws are not respected here, that is the reality. You have the clearest example in how the river basins have been destroyed here by extracting construction materials. I think that there comes up a fundamental issue that is the rule of law, here we have to work to try to encourage us to move towards a rule of law, that the laws are complied with,” said Montás.
Isidoro Santana spoke of the need for a new social contract for the country as a formula to promote the transformations that are required for the development of the country and emphasized that this agreement must lead to the country paying the State so that this At the same time, it can resolve the demands, provide quality services and promote a fairer society, in addition to exposing on the subject of mining.
“The Dominican Republic is required to protect its environment, its basins, hills and its valleys. But, there is also one thing that must be understood, there are very few productive activities that do not have some environmental impact”, reflected the economist.
While Miguel Cera Hatton considered that at the root of inequity are power relations and the distribution of economic surplus and the need to change those power relations to achieve a society with higher levels of equity and the need for programs of social protection contribute to capacity building.
The current Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources also considered that the country’s current challenge is to adapt to climate change and seek solutions based on nature.
On the issue of how to strengthen the protection of natural resources without compromising natural progress, he considered it a false dilemma. “It is a false dilemma because the reality is that in the long run you can achieve a temporary improvement, but you are consuming your natural capital and you can see it, for example, in the ecological footprint and the ecological footprint tells you that, in the Dominican Republic , if we maintain the pattern of consumption, production and destination of the waste generated by that production and that consumption, we need two Dominican Republics”.
