Richard Lueje, president of the National Young Entrepreneurs Association, considered alarming the indebtedness level of the country, equivalent to 52% of the Gross Domestic Product, and expressed concern regarding the Central Bank placement of more than RD$120 billion in savings certificates. Lueje spoke during the workshop, “Strategy for Sustainable Growth in the DR: Challenges.” Lueje pointed to the increased tax burden, unstability of the currency, and sacrifices in public investment that have had to be made as a consequence of all the government borrowing. “Our productive sectors are already feeling the consequences when trying to compete in international markets, carrying a series of distortions and structural problems that impede competition in equal terms,” he highlighted.
“Even though there seems to be a national consensus on the need to resolve the distortions in the tax sector, the electricity problem, the level of education of the population, the weak institutionalism of the country, we can conclude that in many cases we have not advanced enough and in others, unfortunately, we have moved backwards,” he stated.
He said that most projects meet with great opposition because “there is no national development plan that will guarantee the sustainable development of the country, without improvisation and political excesses,” he told his audience. He said that the DR, just as business does, needs to plan its future. If not the country will continue to improve and suffer the consequences of this bad practice, he stated.