President Luis Abinader detailed what the Dominican Republic has done to be a success story in Covid-19 management and economy recovery at the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland.
Participating in a World Economic Forum Latin American Presidents Panel with President Ivan Duque of Colombia, Rodrigo Chavez of Costa Rica and Vice President Dina Boluarte of Peru.
He again used the opportunity to speak to the Dominican Republic’s successful balance of timely and strategic health and economic measures to ensure the recovery of the economy, including the tourism sector, and keep the flow of food supplies.
During his participation, President Abinader recalled that while in Switzerland, he had attended a meeting at the World Health Organization where the country was recognized by its Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for the efficient Covid-19 management during the pandemic.
He added that when he came to the government in the middle of the pandemic (August 2020), at its peak, with a collapsed health system, his first action was to increase the number of beds, especially in the ICU, doubling these in three months time.
He said that the private sector made the first contribution of vaccines to the Dominican state. and then reopened the hotels which were 90% closed at the start of his government.
The President stressed the flow of tourists is fundamental to the Dominican economy. “We have between 16 and 18% of the GDP and 20% of employment that depends on tourism,” explained President Abinader.
He recalled that many people told him that it was crazy to open the country to international travel. Actions taken by the Dominican government and private sector enabled that 50% of the hotels would reopen in 2020-2021.
“We realized that if we did not recover tourism, we were not going to recover the Dominican economy,” he insisted.
The head of state said that along with this recovery of tourism, it was necessary to ensure the health of the population and this lead to the decision to become involved in the logistics of the most comprehensive vaccination program ever, with an emphasis on hotel employees.
“We managed to open the economy, but maintain health safeguards, and today we have one of the lowest lethality levels in the world 0.75%. We are, according to the CDC, at risk 1 just like the USA, and we were able to completely open the economy,” he said.
President Abinader pointed out that the Dominican Republic was the country that recovered the most in tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization. WTO has recognized the country for this success.
Abinader highlighted the recovery of the Dominican economy to the most growth in Latin America, with with 12.3%.
“In the first quarter we grew at 6.1%. I think that in the month of April we will continue at the same level. In the free trade zones we have grown 34% in exports,” he said.
He pointed out that for the first time in 20 years the country has not had to import rice, in addition to the fact that there is an overproduction of bananas and record production of poultry.
He pointed out that, after Russia’s war with Ukraine, with the increase in raw materials, new measures have been taken calling for subsidies to fuel prices, corn, wheat and fertilizers.
He said his administration is dealing with the issues day by day, due to the constant changes that the world is going through.
He explained that the country was prepared not only in terms of social aid, but also that within a month of coming to the government, 2.4 million Dominicans were added to the government health plan.
“Today 98% of Dominicans already have basic medical insurance and that was also very important for the recovery in terms of health, he explained.
He told the World Economic Forum audience that the Dominican Republic has a very diverse matrix of production and generation of foreign exchange and jobs, which he described as very positive.
In terms of foreign exchange generation, he explained that the country has free zones, traditional exports and remittances. Free zones have benefited from the new strategies of nearshoring and friendshoring. He mentioned exports of US$1.8 billion in medical devices alone.
“I believe that Latin America, as diverse as it is, must be as diverse as its tourism. We have sun and beach tourism, which is the most important mass tourism, but we also combine it with ecological tourism in important areas that we have of natural reserves, parks that at the same time that we protect them, we give them the possibility of a special visit.
We also spoke of historical tourism and specified that another very important aspect is the promoting and carrying out of a complete rehabilitation of the Colonial City in Santo Domingo.
He spoke of the promoting of the new tourist pole of Pedernales. He mentioned commitments made by 11 international chains. He said the area offers ecotourism given that 78% of the province’s lands are part of a national park.
He pointed out that these hotels will be installed in a small part of the province but tourists will have access to the entire protected area and a lower density of tourism than the massive and successful tourism developed in Punta Cana. He said that each country, as diverse as Latin America is, has to identify its tourism needs and keep in mind that the new generations have a new environmental tourism awareness that is being taken into account for the development of Pedernales.
The President called attention to the ecological issue, since Latin American countries are the ones that have polluted the world the least due to their low industrial development.
“We are among the 10% that have polluted the least, however, we are among the 10% with the greatest vulnerability,” he said. He mentioned the sargassum impact on the beaches in the Caribbean as a result of global warming, which causes the sea level to rise with the melting of glaciers. The head of state called on countries with higher economic levels to be more aware of the ecological damage caused by major industries.
He mentioned the Alliance for Development in Democracy between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama, which proposes to carry out joint actions to protect the environment and natural resources. He spoke of talks with President Ivan Duque of Colombia for joint protection projects related to the Caribbean Sea.
He mentioned the Territorial and Land Use Planning Bill, that awaits congressional approval, which he described as an urgent bill that would organize the land and its development.
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Presidency
25 May 2022