Foreign investors proposed to President Danilo Medina to develop a Public-Private Partnership (APP), through a National Economic Recovery Plan that would accelerate the restoration of the economy, for which they recommended accelerating infrastructure construction projects underway or under development, to short and medium-term.
The representatives of companies, members of the Association of Foreign Direct Investment (Asiex) recently met with the president, in a meeting in which they presented the report “Impact of the economic sectors by COVID-19,” product of a survey carried out to 15 foreign companies in the country in the construction, energy, industry, mining, services, financial, consulting, and telecommunications sectors, among others. Only with the expansion of mining, the economy would receive an injection of more than US $ 1,300 million in investments for 15 years,” if the mining extension project is approved.”
Further, there is more than $ 500 million in capital for renewable energy projects. The members of the Asiex, chaired by Edwin de los Santos, ask the State to expedite the approval of investment projects and especially take advantage of the opportunities that arise in times of pandemic and crisis so that the country can overcome the post-COVID-19 challenges.
Similarly, demanded to speed up construction permits, access to credit, and government financial support for the first home so that more than 2 million people benefit directly or indirectly.
Contributions to the economy
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies contribute 37% of all tax revenues to the Dominican economy, representing 71% of national exports, and 22% of contributions to private sector social security.
Likewise, Asiex has 70 companies with an investment portfolio that exceeds US $ 20,000 million cumulatively and generates more than 200,000 formal jobs in the Dominican economy.
The members participating in the Asiex survey exposed the impact on their cash flows, cost overruns, increases in their inventories of raw materials to guarantee production, teleworking measures for their collaborators, and on reorientation and planning of their businesses, among others.
The representatives of foreign investment companies expressed a great consensus on the gradual reopening of the economy so that the opening is staggered and organized, focusing on sectors that can guarantee physical distancing and low possibility of contagion. They valued the government’s measures and effort to confront the pandemic.
The companies of the Asiex indicates the report, also represent an annual net contribution of more than US $ 5 billion. In 2020, a contribution of more than US $ 185 million is estimated for direct and indirect taxes.
Each sector presents the impact of COVID-19 and suggestions for dealing with it.