Could you see DR as an emerging economical power?

Joshua R

New member
Jan 2, 2006
199
0
0
For me this is pretty interesting. Dominican exports had grew 18 % the 1st quarter its tourism is also growing at a steady rate while its hoping to grow more with the rebuilding of the Montecristi airport. Its also known that the nations growth has also grown about 9 % ( may be wrong i forgot what its growth is) The metro will also bring economical oppertunities and possible growth to the country as well you may see metros springing up in other large cities like Santiago.This is just naming a few economic leaps that DR has taken. So in my view it is possible to see DR as a possible economic power.
 

mondongo

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
1,533
6
38
not now

how can the DR become an "economical power" when a significant portion of its population lacks basic education?
 

qgrande

Bronze
Jul 27, 2005
805
4
0
Economic power? Power is influence, an economic power is not only a wealthy country, but also one with global economic influence. For that you have to be a big country; China is poor, and the rural masses lack basic education, but it still is definitely an economic power. Luxembourg and Iceland are wealthy, but you wouldn't really call them economic powers, would you? No, the Dominican Republic is not only too poor to be an economic power, but also too small. It will be some time before the world markets tremble when the Dominican Central Bank changes its interest rate.
 

RHM

Doctor of Diplomacy
Sep 23, 2002
1,660
30
0
www.thecandidacy.com
Josh,

I commend you for your optimism. But let's not put the cart before the horse.

Progress is good, even better when it's consistent. Let's just keep growing and improving and not worry about being a "global power".

It's like building a metro when we lack so many basic necessities.

I am all for thinking big but you have to crawl, then walk, then run.

Scandall
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,372
3,150
113
Joshua R said:
For me this is pretty interesting. Dominican exports had grew 18 % the 1st quarter its tourism is also growing at a steady rate while its hoping to grow more with the rebuilding of the Montecristi airport. Its also known that the nations growth has also grown about 9 % ( may be wrong i forgot what its growth is) The metro will also bring economical oppertunities and possible growth to the country as well you may see metros springing up in other large cities like Santiago.This is just naming a few economic leaps that DR has taken. So in my view it is possible to see DR as a possible economic power.
Joshua,

The problem with questions regarding economics is that everybody feels they have a right to say something about such subject.There is nothing wrong witha that, except that it's one of the few fields in which non-economists feel they know more than the economists themselves!

Now, if only we could do that with everything else in life.

When you get sick, do you consult with your neighbor or with your doctor in order to find a quick remedy to the problem?


To attempt answering your very broad question, it depends on what you mean by emerging economical power. Do you mean on a regional level or further afield?

Are you referring more to certain sectors of the economy or the economy as a whole?

Etc, etc.

Please, be more specific.

While it's true that Luxembourg and Iceland are not economical powers per se, those tiny states certainly have more political power on the international stage than most poor countries many times their size. Political power in the international arena is closely related to economical power.

And regarding the education level, while its true a well educated population is essential for a thriving democracy, it's also true that education alone does not explains the economic well being of the well off nations of the world.

According to the well respected McKinsey Global Institute, founded by William M. Lewis, he held several positions in the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy and also served in the World Bank, plus some of his work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Economist; the issue of education is taken way out of proportion. They found that in South Korea, which is neither a rich or poor country, made a massive investment in edcuation in the 1960s. In fact, illiteracy is almost unknown in that country today.

One would think that with such a good education system, South Korea would have gained alot by simply being smarter than everybody else. Wrong! Korea actually achieves 35% of U.S. labor productivity and 50% of U.S. GDP per capita primarily by working 40% more hours than Americans do.

That's not the effect education advocates have in mind. According to many education advocates, South Korea's example should attribute its economic success and well being to its well educated workforce, NOT to the fact that half the country's wealth is created by merely working harder and not necessarily by being smarter.

This is only one macroeconomic example, the institute has discovered various examples of this at the micro level as well in economies across the world. Again, education is great for many social objectives, but economic development takes more than simply that and often times, the productivity level of individuals is attributed largely to factors beyond their own education level.

Trainability, flexibility, specialization, and the desire to work hard are more important elements in any workforce world wide for achieving fast economic growth and development than education alone.

-NALs
 
Last edited:

Mirador

On Permanent Vacation!
Apr 15, 2004
3,563
0
0
Those statistical numbers are meaningless... being a world economic power is useless when the state is not able to provide basic education; where health services are beyond the reach of most people; where citizens are not provided adequate protection from violence and crime; where a privileged elite controls the decision making process, for their own benefit and at the expense of the common folk; ....
 

RHM

Doctor of Diplomacy
Sep 23, 2002
1,660
30
0
www.thecandidacy.com
Mirador said:
Those statistical numbers are meaningless... being a world economic power is useless when the state is not able to provide basic education; where health services are beyond the reach of most people; where citizens are not provided adequate protection from violence and crime; where a privileged elite controls the decision making process, for their own benefit and at the expense of the common folk; ....

Mirador is making sense...as usual, NALS is blowing smoke out of his arse.

Nals, people think they are experts on ANYTHING political...not just economics...and it doesn't take a Ph.D. in economics to answer the kid's question.

Scandall
 

Beads

Bronze
May 21, 2006
607
30
0
I just was reading a post about someone who had 18k us in a bank here and it magically dissappeared. If the government allows such things nobody in their right mind would invest large amounts of money into any ventures here. They need to fix problems like this and those stated before (education etc) before they will ever move forward and attract bigger investments.
 

Berzin

Banned
Nov 17, 2004
5,898
550
113
I'm an economist(wink, wink)...

so let me chime in.
Tourism does'nt count. The investments made in tourism are by foriegn-owned companies who extract the profits and the average dominican has to be content with just another low-level job with no advancement opportunities in some BS resort.
I would love for once to have somebody explain to me how tourism is good for the DR in terms of its' workers or for the overall economic well-being of the island.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,372
3,150
113
Berzin said:
so let me chime in.
Tourism does'nt count. The investments made in tourism are by foriegn-owned companies who extract the profits and the average dominican has to be content with just another low-level job with no advancement opportunities in some BS resort.
I would love for once to have somebody explain to me how tourism is good for the DR in terms of its' workers or for the overall economic well-being of the island.
Overall, tourism directly and indirectly benefits the economy of the entire country. From construction, transportation, and commerce to agriculture, manufacturing, and telecommunications. All those sectors and others see an increase in economic activity, much higher than if the economy had to solely depend on the local middle and upper classes.

In terms of workers, they are being productive when in previous years when tourism was smaller and/or non-existent they would not have been as productive.

Much of flow of money due to the tourist trade is taxed quite heavily by the government, which allows for taxes on other things directed to the population at large to be as low as they are. This is taking into account that taxes in the DR on average are quite high, they would have been even higher if it was not for the tourist trade.

Additionally, improvements in the infrastructure helps minimize various transaction costs (from less time to travel across the country to less money spent on gasoline as gasoline consumption actually decreases on a per mile/kilometer basis than it does on a secondary and/or urban road, etc).

Also, there is another aspect of the tourist trade that many Dominicans benefit from and this aspect is often off the books. What is it? The goodwill of many of the visitors who decide to give the people needed material things and may even volunteer to help the poor in certain ways. This is a help that most likely would have never been created had the tourist never set foot on the island.

Tourist related degrees are highly popular in Dominican universities. That's a new opportunity that students in higher education are aiming towards, thanks to the tourist trade.

-NALs

Edited to add: Joshua, keep in mind that how a group of people view a country lags behind the actual economic transformation taking place. This is a normal part of human nature. Once a certain generation has a certain image imbedded in their minds of some place or something, they will not change their points of views and they will rejects any indication of change as long as their beliefs of what change should be are not met. Thus, if you were to ask an American in the 1950s whether the Japanese were ever going to be a rich country, most would probably laugh and wonder if you were joking. Afterall, Japan was a dirt poor country that spew out of its factories cheap and unreliable goods (much like modern China, I might add). Talk to whomever of that generation is still alive and you will experience two types of reactions:

1. The one's who refuse to believe the fact that Japan has actually become a rich nation in less than a century and thus, they either reject such reality or they are making "predictions" that the Japanese miracle won't last or they will come up with excuses that Japan simply got lucky.

2. Or you could experience those who are simply in disbelief of what Japan has been able to do. This disbelief is express in mere shock, they will often say "when I was a little kid Japan was nothing, where are the cheap stuff came from. Look at it today, unbelievable, etc".

Contemporary young generations have a view of Japan that is radically different from those of previous generations. Japan is no longer seen as a threat, it's seen a progressive, and only the best things come from Japan.'

That change in attitude towards Japan took a generation or two of being exposed to the new Japan.

Much in the same manner the image of the DR and its developmental patterns will change as new generations comes along and they begin to judge the DR from their life time onward as oppose to what the DR was in the past and thus, can't possibly become something better in the future, which is a typical attitude from older generations.

Having said all of this, there is no denial that today the DR is much more economically advance that it was in the 1950s. In fact, the DR has leaped along in many of its aspects since then, but different cohort groups see things differently, even though they are seeing the exact samething.

The cup is either half empty or half full. But, it's the same cup!

-NALs
 
Last edited: