The Interamerican Development Bank and the National Council of Competitiveness held yesterday the first national competitiveness workshop, presenting clusters as a workable strategy and organizational technology for Dominican development and community improvement. Terms such as “coompetivity” were introduced ? cooperation for competitivity. During the event, Michael Fairbanks of On the Frontier Group, spoke on the need for Dominican business to sell products with increased value added. He urged the DR move away from being a price-driven country to one that delivers products for which there is less rivalry and high demand in sophisticated markets.
Leonel Guerrero, guest speaker representing Mexican clusters, highlighted the importance of believing in the common good as a national strategy, where solidarity in business groups reduces the obstacles to progress.
Andres Vanderhorst, director of the National Competitiveness Council highlighted that the DR was one of the most studied countries and that what was needed was just to update some of the studies and to get to work. He says the National Competitiveness Council is betting on the clusters as a strategy for progress.
Three cluster success stories were presented at the workshop. The cases of the Bayahibe hotels association, mango and horticulture clusters served as examples to prove that the clusters can serve as an action plan.
The clusters concept is supported in the DR by the Chemonics program sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development. The cluster-based competitiveness approach reflects the need for supportive and integrative mechanisms to weave tourism into the larger economy. The concept is that product quality, international competitiveness and hence sustainability increase as linkages and synergies in a local economy become stronger and more dynamic.
The event promoted the importance of increasing the level of associativity, innovation and competitiveness of Dominican businessmen.