Economists Miguel Ceara Hatton, Ernesto Selman and Luis Vargas have told Hoy that the Dominican economy needs to explore new export-focused productive activities, given the stagnation of the productive sectors that used to be the engine of the country’s economy. They said that measures such as increasing government spending and reducing bank reserve requirements are not enough to tackle the current recessionary effects. They mentioned that free zone industry experienced negative growth from 2000 to 2012. Luis Vargas made the point that the government could be reorienting the country for the mining sector to play a larger role in the economy.
Prior to ending her term in the Dominican Republic, Valerie Julliand, representative of the United Nations Development Program in the country, had alerted that the country needed to ask itself whether it wanted to be a mining nation, given the high social and environmental costs of the industry.
http://www.hoy.com.do/economia/2013/8/11/493706/Economia-debe-explorar-nuevas-actividades
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/05/27/i385527_gobierno-debe-reflexionar-sobre-mineraa-con-sociedad.html