The Minister of Economy, Planning and Development, Miguel Ceara Hattonnoted that A change in power relations is urgently needed to materialize the social pact that guarantees the reforms and changes that are needed in the country.
Participating in the “EURSociAL high-level bi-regional dialogue of the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean”, the minister said that "to think of a real Tax Reform and a pact, we have to change power relations, our societies are very unequal, and being so unequal, inequality is legitimizing a power relationship”.
According to the economist and researcher, in the end development becomes a question of power and not of rights as it should be. “What needs to be changed is that power relationship, and that is how they say in the Dominican Republic, where the sow twisted her tail"Ceara Hatton pointed out.
He added that this is the most difficult, but that the basis for making a true pact is that power relations change and that citizen power truly exists.
Recovery
Minister Ceara Hatton highlighted that, in 2021, the Dominican economy grew 12.3% compared to 2020 and 4.7% compared to 2019. He indicated that a significant growth with a marked reduction in the fiscal deficit and this is explained by the fact that when the current government took office, it changed the profile of legitimacy in the Dominican Republic.
He indicated that in the country, corruption and impunity once became an instrument of governance to guarantee governability and assured that the current government works so that there is no impunity.
He stated that these decisions that the arbitrators be independent generated a series of confidence to the point that of that 12.3% of economic growth that was had in 2021, 63% is explained by investment.
Ceara Hatton pointed out that approximately 95% or 96% of that investment was private. “It was the confidence of the private sector that pushed, in addition, the government’s policy in the case of tourism that made every effort to keep hotels open, and gave support to the industrial sector,” he said.
Russia-Ukraine situation
The economist and researcher said that the world has been in uncertainty for 17 months and still no one knows when the war between Russia and Ukraine will end.
Regarding high oil prices, Ceara Hatton said that this situation means that in the Dominican Republic it is necessary to support a subsidy to the population that is calculated to probably reach 1% of GDP.
“The only ones who have not realized that there is no war are the international credit assessment organizations, they don’t know that there is a war, so they are telling us that we have to end the year with a ratio between the payment of debt serviceor interest basically in proportion to tax revenue”, said Ceara Hattón, emphasizing that a recession cannot be allowed today.
