the minister of Economy, Planning and Development, Pavel Isa Contrerasexplained that the Development Strategy for the Border Area (MiFronteraRD) has 90 initiatives to transform the territory from the economic, productive and public services point of view, which includes training people for the opportunities that the projects will generate. to be built in these provinces.
The “Social inclusion rings” They are presented as a comprehensive public policy for the prioritization of the population residing in the communities of the border area with the opportunities for generating income (employment and production) demanded by the new companies that settle in the territory.
Minister Isa Contreras stated that the strategy MiFronteraRD is multisectoral and integral with the articulation of the hand of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development. In the case of Pedernales, he argued that the development of sustainable tourism that takes care of natural wealth and protected areas is promoted and implies the provision of water, communication routes and electricity.
“It is a combo, which will not only be focused on Cabo Rojo, it will cover the entire province,” said Minister Isa Contreras, interviewed on the Telediario N16 program, by journalist Robert González.
He pointed out that the idea is that the development of Pedernales engages the Independencia province through the road connection and the supply of agricultural products for the tourist area, among other aspects.
The economist and researcher projects that the development of Pedernales will cause many people to move to live in this province. He announced that starting next week the training for Pedernales will begin, then they will continue with the Enriquillo region and then the rest of the country.
He said that emphasis is placed on this topic because many trained people are needed, starting to build the infrastructure, and then to operate it and offer services.
In this sense, the university professor expressed that in order to work, people have to go through a training process that allows them to provide high quality services and charge high incomes to the tourists they receive and therefore pay better salaries.
Minister Isa Contreras stated that a similar situation in the area of logistics and transportation will occur in Manzanillo, Montecristi and throughout the Cibao Noroeste region, where port infrastructure and two natural gas power plants will be built.
“This is so that people benefit and live in a healthy environment with guaranteed basic services and quality employment,” said Isa Contreras.
The development projects of the Port of Manzanillo (Pepillo Salcedo) and Cabo Rojo (Pedernales), will be engines for the generation of new sources of employment in the border area, and mechanisms are promoted that link the offer of employment with the population that resides in the territory.
The program is aimed at prioritizing and maximizing the offer of employment and training for the resident population of age (18-65 years) during the construction and operation phases of the projects in Manzanillo and Cabo Rojo, according to the productive activity.
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census importance
Isa Contreras explained that the census constitutes the richest source of data in a country due to the level of disaggregation and because people are counted one by one and the fundamental characteristics are identified, such as where they live, their age, including foreigners, does not differ .
“It is simply a count, if you want to count who is a foreigner in particular, you have to have a specialized instrument, the census does not discriminate, what it does is count the entire population that usually lives in the Dominican Republic,” he said.
He indicated that the material conditions of the home are also identified, because it is a population and housing census and that it is normally done every 10 years. He recalled the X National Population and Housing Census was scheduled for 2020, but could not be carried out due to the Covid-19 pandemic and recalled that this year it will be held from November 10 to 23 next.
Two successful years in macroeconomic terms
The minister said that in macroeconomic terms these two years of government have been very successful, particularly due to the difficult context in which public policy has been carried out.
The university professor stated that the Government has had to deal with a very adverse context and despite that it has had very good results.
Isa Contreras pointed out that despite this context, the Dominican economy has presented truly impressive aggregate results and that the only negative point in macroeconomic terms in these two years is obviously inflation caused by external factors.
The economist highlighted that nominal wages, remittances and transfers from the Government to families have increased.
He argued that the Government, in order to face the negative point of inflation, is making an enormous fiscal effort to fulfill a commitment and the ethical obligation that the State has to protect people in situations as adverse as that of high food prices and the fuels.
Isa Contreras said that the situation has implied an increase in spending on subsidies that, as President Luis Abinader mentioned in his speech last Tuesday until the beginning of August, reached RD$42 billion.
He considered that one of the important subsidies is that of fuels and said that of the bulk of the 42 billion, RD$30 billion have been for fuel.
He stated that the economic recovery has brought relief to the labor market and reaffirmed that the Ministry of Economy works to give quality to public policy in general.
Leader in recovery
Isa Contreras highlighted that the tourism sector has led the economic recovery at the end of 2021 and so far in 2022. She pointed out that the sector has had a very strong recovery, “it surprised us all”, when it was thought that it would do so more slow.
He stated that in the Dominican Republic, tourism recovered faster than in other countries, because the Government applied a policy aimed at this aspect due to its importance in generating jobs and foreign exchange, as well as its carrying capacity.
“The tourism sector aims this year to break all records of tourist arrivals this year,” he said.
In terms of improving people’s quality of life, he understands it is important to strengthen Social Security so that people have greater access to health services and primary care, which would contribute to reducing out-of-pocket spending.
He indicated that in terms of Social Security there is a proposed reform that is in the process of being discussed. He argued that the Ministry of Economy is committed to pushing for a progressive social security reform that benefits the people.
