[DR1] Geography means a lot for DR

[NewsWhore]

The executive secretary of the National Competitiveness Council, Andres Vanderhorst Jr. highlighted yesterday that the Dominican Republic needs to put its privileged geographic positioning to work as an advantage in the free trade agreements that it has signed. Vanderhorst said that the DR cannot compete in production costs and needs to compete in its flexibility and speed. The DR needs to focus on how geography can work to our advantage to reduce delivery times given our proximity to major markets such as the East Coast of the US, he said. Vanderhorst recognized that both the deficient and costly electricity service and inadequate taxation contribute to increases in the cost of producing in the DR, and that these are major challenges that lie ahead. At the same time, he stressed that the DR cannot base its competitiveness strategies on low costs. He said during a RNN Channel 27 interview on En Una Hora program, that the DR's biggest challenge is how to take advantage of the country's proximity to the US. He says this means work in making the local customs service more efficient and reducing transportation costs.

Link To Original Article (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)