Economist Eduardo Garc?a Michel, who recently resigned from his post as member of the Monetary Board, writes in the List?n Diario that too many people need yet to become aware that the greatest setback to sustained growth is the lack of a national export culture. On the page dedicated to the Fundaci?n Siglo 21 think tank, he says the mentalities of our politicians, business sector and the population in general must give up the belief that we can live in a state of near autarchy or self-sufficiency. He believes the contrary: that the country needs to focus on exporting as a national goal, and design macro and micro policies to achieve this goal. By the same token, the country needs to back businesses that accept the challenge of conquering foreign markets.
The government recently merged the Office for the Promotion of Investment (OPI) and the Center for the Promotion of Exports (Cedopex). Trade analyses of past years show that commodities exported from the DR, such as cacao, sugar, coffee and tobacco, have been in steady decline. Exports from manufacturers in the free-trade zones have also stagnated. While there has been some increase in the export of non-traditional products, it is not enough to offset the decline in service exports, namely tourism.
Garc?a Michel says that the country should not delude itself into thinking it can depend wholly on the tourism sector and advocates expanding the base of exports as a remedy.
If measures are not taken to stimulate an increase in export revenues, he says, the country will have to curtail imports at the cost of the growth of the GDP, which will in turn cause local prices to increase ? a phenomenon that is already underway. Garc?a Michel says that up until now, the government has chosen to increase the inflow of foreign capital through a spate of borrowing, instead of promoting increased export revenues. He highlights that while export revenues are not owed to anyone, loans must be paid back.
?One should reflect on the public policies that have been designed to solve the problem of the unsustainable increase in the balance of trade, and ask whether they have solved the problem or not,? he writes. ?The sad truth is that creating a national export culture does not even appear on the economic agenda of the government, nor on the agenda of the opposition parties, nor probably on the agenda of a good part of the business sector,? he emphasizes.