The Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE) has described the country's competitiveness ranking in 105th place out of 148 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report for the World Economic Forum 2013-2014 as a disadvantage.
ANJE president Frank Elias Rainieri Kuret said that the Dominican Republic is in the same position as last year, showing that the country can still not solve the age-old problems that affect competitiveness. These include quality of the electricity service, corruption, lack of institutionalism, the deficiencies in the education system and the unfavorable investment climate.
He said that the country urgently needs structural reforms in several areas, which he prioritized as: diversion of public funds (the country is in 142nd position, among the worst five countries in the world), wastefulness of government spending (138th place, among the worst seven countries in the world, favoritism in decisions of government officers (145th, among the worst five countries in the world) and the quality of electricity supply (ranked 134th, among the worst countries in Latin America). He stated that in the case of the electricity sector, this was actually going backwards as the country was ranked 130th last year.
Rainieri Kuret added that the government should adopt public policies that eliminate these competitive weaknesses, otherwise major investors will go to other countries in the region that are better ranked for business such as Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The report indicates that the most problematic factors for doing business in the Dominican Republic are corruption, access to financing, inefficient government bureaucracy, tax rates, inadequately educated workforce and restrictive labor regulations.
The DR ranks in the top upward third of the report in these areas: quality of port infrastructure, quality of air transport infrastructure, available airline seats, general government debt as % of GDP, prevalence of foreign ownership, burden of customs procedures, flexibility of wage determination, soundness of banks, ease of access to loans, firm-level technology absorption, local supplier quantity, control of international distribution, and extent of marketing.
Dominican Republic News & Travel Information Service
The good thing about this report is that the DR only can go up since they're already at the bottom of the ladder.
ANJE president Frank Elias Rainieri Kuret said that the Dominican Republic is in the same position as last year, showing that the country can still not solve the age-old problems that affect competitiveness. These include quality of the electricity service, corruption, lack of institutionalism, the deficiencies in the education system and the unfavorable investment climate.
He said that the country urgently needs structural reforms in several areas, which he prioritized as: diversion of public funds (the country is in 142nd position, among the worst five countries in the world), wastefulness of government spending (138th place, among the worst seven countries in the world, favoritism in decisions of government officers (145th, among the worst five countries in the world) and the quality of electricity supply (ranked 134th, among the worst countries in Latin America). He stated that in the case of the electricity sector, this was actually going backwards as the country was ranked 130th last year.
Rainieri Kuret added that the government should adopt public policies that eliminate these competitive weaknesses, otherwise major investors will go to other countries in the region that are better ranked for business such as Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The report indicates that the most problematic factors for doing business in the Dominican Republic are corruption, access to financing, inefficient government bureaucracy, tax rates, inadequately educated workforce and restrictive labor regulations.
The DR ranks in the top upward third of the report in these areas: quality of port infrastructure, quality of air transport infrastructure, available airline seats, general government debt as % of GDP, prevalence of foreign ownership, burden of customs procedures, flexibility of wage determination, soundness of banks, ease of access to loans, firm-level technology absorption, local supplier quantity, control of international distribution, and extent of marketing.
Dominican Republic News & Travel Information Service
The good thing about this report is that the DR only can go up since they're already at the bottom of the ladder.