Government Says Haiti Commitments Not Being Met as Quickly as Hoped

Government Says Haiti Commitments Not Being Met as Quickly as Hoped 
Dominican President Leonel Fernández said that he understands “the anxiety and desperation” of the Haitians and of those who think “the world has forgotten about Haiti” as the implementation of some of the international commitments have not been fulfilled with the speed that many expected.

“Because the drama of Haiti is so huge…more than a million people lost their homes and are now living in tents,” said the Dominican President.

In an interview with the news agency EFE following his three day visit to Germany, the Head of State expressed hope that the recent summit of donor countries in Punta Cana and the creation of an interim commission by former President Bill Clinton “allows for the promised help to flow much faster to speed up the recovery.”

“Because the drama of Haiti is so huge…more than a million people lost their homes and are now living in tents,” said the Dominican President.

Economic Success

Speaking about the economic success of the Dominican Republic, Fernández said “the global financial crisis did not affect the Dominican financial system like many Latin American countries. The impact has been commercial and fiscal. The fact that tourism has not dropped off helped us as well as the remittances of funds from Dominicans living abroad,” reported the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

For Fernández, two economic sectors have played an essential role in the positive macroeconomic data: agriculture and construction. The former “increased its productive capacity” while public and private investment rose in the latter.

Looking toward the future, the Dominican President along with the German Prime Minister Angela Merkel are both committed to the application of new rules for the financial markets. “Part of the financial crisis came from the belief that the markets would regulate themselves.”  Fernández called for “banking oversight, consumer protection and a limit on the number of financial stocks that can be held by intermediary agents.”

In the concrete case of the Dominican Republic, the President advised “not to cut back on public investment” and to maintain anti-cyclic policies. “If austerity policies are applied in these moments, they could result in a downturn of growth while opening the possibility of falling into another recession which would force the introduction of new stimulus packages,” he affirmed.

The Dominican President smiled as he confirmed that his country is in a fortunate situation, a “honeymoon,” with the European Union (EU) and especially with his host on this occasion, Germany.

Each year, 300,000 Germans travel as tourists to the Dominican Republic while some 15,000 Germans live in the DR.