Santo Domingo, DR – President Luis Abinader said today that the Dominican Republic has reduced malnourishment by 45% in terms of food, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The president assured that the country has managed to reduce the percentage of the undernourished population from 8.3% in the 2018-2020 period to 4.6% in the 2021-2023 period.
After highlighting other advances, Abinader pointed out that employment today registers a record number of active workers in the labor market and that unemployment has been reduced to 5% during the last three years.
The president said that the average minimum wage has grown 14% above inflation, thus improving the purchasing power of Dominican workers.
“It is no coincidence, therefore, that the Dominican Republic is today in the category of High Human Development in the United Nations index, and that in recent years we are one of the few countries in the world that have climbed positions,” he said when he was sworn in for a new presidential term.
He said that in 3, the Dominican Republic’s GDP per capita reached US$11,200, “consolidating us as a middle-income economy.”
Regarding agriculture, the president stressed that the goal is full development and support and that strengthening the agricultural sector will continue to be a priority of the government.
He indicated that the agricultural policy he has implemented has been fundamental to guaranteeing the country’s food security and maintaining producers’ profitability.
He pointed out that according to the United States Department of Agriculture, for the first time, in the current year 2024, the country will exceed US$1,800 million in exports of agricultural goods to that country, including beef, whose market has been reopened after being closed for more than 20 years.
However, he specified: “I am aware that the impact of extreme atmospheric phenomena on our agriculture as a result of Climate Change, forces us to dedicate more and more resources to the development of infrastructures and technologies that contribute to strengthening the resilience that our agricultural sector has shown to have and increase the efficiency and productivity of the resources we dedicate to it.”
He maintained that financing has been a critical piece of agricultural policy in his administration.
He added that the credit program with rates and conditions adapted to agriculture has made it possible to position agriculture as one of the economic activities that attracts the most investment and development in the country and that this new government will continue to strengthen credit and channel the resources required to guarantee the profitability and sustainability of agriculture.