Former Central Bank governor and historian Bernardo Vega acknowledges the modern-day President’s task as salesman for the country. In an op-ed piece in El Caribe newspaper today, he encourages President Leonel Fernandez to pick up more offers for investments and fewer offers of loans during his trips. He comments that on his trips, his predecessor Hipolito Mejia received mostly offers for loans, most onerous, not priority and with inflated values, of benefit to the lender and those who receive the commissions. Unfortunately, he writes, many were accepted and they explain the enormous increase in the debt payment during his government that has tied the present government’s hands. “He should have accepted more investments and much fewer loans,” he writes.
He explains that in Spain the limit for the loans was the country-risk ceiling that the governmental agency that ensures Spanish loans against political risks. He also mentions that former President Mejia, on his trips to Washington, also, unfortunately, accepted financing from Eximbank, with the same conditions described above.
Vega writes that President Fernandez should continue to travel but should seek private investments, not loans. He says the amount of loans the country can take on is limited by the IMF. He says that within the DR-CAFTA scenario, it is now easier to promote private investments, including those coming from third countries that are not signatories of the bilateral agreement. He says that companies investing here then could export freely to the United States from the DR.
He expressed the hope that when President Fernandez travels to England this month, he may bring back investments, not loans.