Addressing a breakfast meeting at the British Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Tuesday 28 April 2015, the British Ambassador in the Dominican Republic, Steven Fisher, commented that poverty in the Dominican Republic has been slow to decline despite the country’s impressive rates of growth over the past decades. Fisher is concluding his five-year term in the country.
Fisher said that 50 years after the 1965 Civil War and the US invasion, the country has not reduced its poverty levels to Latin American levels despite having stronger economic growth rates. He said that in 1965, widespread corruption was one of the factors behind poverty. He added that poverty in the Dominican Republic continues to be a cause for concern for people doing business, living, working and vacationing in the country because it generates crime.
Fisher congratulated the government for its initiatives in the areas of education, small business promotion and farming as poverty reduction strategies but said that there is yet to be the perception that poverty is really in remission or that earnings are permanent and sustainable. He said that while poverty in Latin America has declined from 44% to 28% on average, in the DR it has barely dropped from 44% to 41%.
The British ambassador highlighted that at the same time poverty levels in Chile has dropped from 29% to 14% and in Peru poverty has been reduced from 49% to 25%.
He said he asked his colleagues in Santiago how the Chileans had achieved this and was told that what had made the difference was constant economic growth, wage increases, increased participation by women in the labor market with decent wages and a “clean” police force and judiciary.
He commented that while in Latin America the middle classes are more numerous than the poor, the middle class in the Dominican Republic has declined in the past 15 years.
Today’s editorial in Diario Libre, Wednesday 29 April 2015, focuses on Fisher’s remarks. Executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada pressed the point made by Fisher that the Dominican Republic should learn from the Singapore experience.
In his speech, Fisher mentioned that his first posting as a diplomat was to Singapore, a country that he said was practically a failed state in 1965, but is now one of the richest countries in the world. He explained that this was achieved through political stability, an extremely trustworthy and transparent business climate, a strong line against corruption, especially when it comes to the misuse of public funds. He said there was no impunity for anyone, whether rich or politically well connected. He spoke of impeccable race relations.
Ambassador Fisher stated that he hopes to return to the Dominican Republic to find an integrated Dominican society, with fair access to justice without impunity, where drug trafficking has been defeated and violent crimes, including femicides have been dramatically reduced. He hopes to see extreme poverty eradicated and poverty radically reduced. He hopes to see most people employed in the formal sector, with increased wages and where children are not begging on the streets and the people who send them to beg severely punished. Where the police are well paid and efficient and respected.
In his remarks, Fisher praised the government’s efforts to legalize immigration and said that the UK would not criticize the country when deportations take place once the National Foreigner Legalization Plan deadline expires, but that any deportations should respect human rights. “The social consequences of decades of uncertainty, informality and irregularities in the area of immigration are not being tackled,” he said. He highlighted that the National Foreigner Legalization Plan offers immigrants the same treatment that any other country should offer.
In his talk, Fisher says that UK-DR relations would be better if the problems affecting the judiciary were resolved. He described the courts as “slow, frustrating and unfair.”
He highlighted that the Dominican Republic is ranked fifth in countries around the world receiving UK investment, with an estimated US$1 billion. He said that the UK is the leading importer of Dominican fruit with purchases worth more than US$90 million. The DR is the second largest supplier of plantains to the UK market. Fisher also highlighted that the DR is the second largest market for the UK in Central America and the Caribbean.
http://www.diariolibre.com/economia/2015/04/29/i1121981_fisher-realidad-social-repblica-dominicana-desalienta-empresas-britnicas.html
Embajador Reino Unido afirma que hay dos RD: los pobres y los demás
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/2015/04/29/i1123201_que-dijo-embajador.html