President-elect Leonel Fernandez said that exports are the key to the DR?s future. The incoming PLD statesman was speaking at the public release of a series of studies on competitiveness in the Dominican Republic coordinated by Sachs, when he was director of the Center for International Development of Harvard University. Sachs is today the director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University. The well-known US economist came for the book presentation. As reported in Diario Libre, Fernandez said that the future of the country is tied to the development of an export culture. He mentioned the successful ventures of export manufacturing zones, tourism and remittances. He said that a thorough review of the Dominican economy reveals that when a national sector is able to achieve international links it progresses, when it doesn?t, however, it lags behind. The competitiveness studies were carried out in order to plan for a medium- and long-term development strategy.
See http://www.funglode.org/menu/noticias/2004/07/22julio04_libroharvard.htm