Economic and social reforms, challenges for the re-elected Dominican president

The president of Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who achieved re-election in Sunday’s elections, faces a series of challenges, many of them on the economic and social level.

This year, the local economy is expected to grow by 5%double that in 2023, consolidating itself as one of the fastest expanding in the region.

But, at the same time, social debts and marked inequalities persist, a deficient health system, to which is added the expansion of the informal economy, while general monetary poverty is located in the 23.0% and the extreme in the 3.2%.

Time for “transformations”

For years, the country has had a fiscal reform pending, a campaign promise of Abinader, but it has been postponed and local economists consider that this is a good time, politically and economically, to launch it.

Abinader himself, as soon as he came to power in August 2020, presented a fiscal reform plan with new taxes to confront the crisis after the pandemic, but he immediately withdrew it due to criticism and ended up discarding it a year later.

Just a few days ago, in an appearance at the Private Enterprise Council (Conep), the head of state, who this Sunday won almost the 58% of the votes, recognized that in the country there are “many pending reforms” and he cited, among these, the fiscal or the social security system.

He also referred to the reform that has already been launched to transform the National Police, one of the most questioned institutions at the national level.

Sure of his electoral victory, Abinader, a 56-year-old economist from the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM, liberal and progressive), then told the businessmen: in the next four years ““We have a great challenge, almost a unique opportunity, to make major reforms in favor of the Dominican people.”

But, he promised, “We are all going to discuss them” until achieving a “consensus” with the other political forces.

Prepared for new challenges

After overcoming the worst of the crisis derived from the pandemic, the Caribbean country is “prepared” to face possible eventualities, local or foreign, according to the head of state himself, who will assume his next term on August 16.

In his appearance at Conep, the ruler was “Very optimist” of the moment that the Dominican Republic is experiencing, which, he stressed, ““It doesn’t mean that we won’t have difficulties,” but “We are prepared to face them.”

Abinader took office in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and these four years “They have been great challenges,” but the country “has been progressing”, said.

And, in this four-year period, the Dominican Republic has broken records in strategic sectors such as tourism, its main source of foreign currency, or foreign direct investment, but also in remittances, another of the pillars of the national economy.

Despite the good economic performance, international organizations highlight that the country has not managed to generate quality jobs and proposes to improve access to quality basic goods and services such as education, health, water and electricity.

Corruption and insecurity

The fight against corruption and insecurity are also among the issues that Abinader will have to face in the next four years.

Although there has been progress in the fight against corruption as a result of the great movement to combat this scourge that occurred between 2017 and 2019, delays in judicial processes persist, according to the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI). ). The report also warns of cases that have fallen into impunity due to delays.

Another issue of vital interest is citizen insecurity, which, along with the cost of living and unemployment, continue to be among the main problems of Dominicans, according to surveys.

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