NewsWhore
09-22-2010, 03:20 PM
During the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals yesterday in New York, President Leonel Fernandez admitted that despite the growth rates achieved by the Dominican economy in recent years, the Dominican Republic has little chance of reducing poverty by 50% within the next five years.
The Dominican leader attributed the difficulty in complying with this goal to unforeseeable circumstances, both internal as well as external. The main reason he gave was the internal financial crisis in 2003, when several Dominican banks were severely affected. "As a result of that crisis, the economy shrunk by 0.3%, the currency was devalued 100%, inflation shot up at an alarming rate and unemployment increased from 13% to 19%". He added that in this context, poverty, instead of being reduced, was increased, and it was not until 2005 that the national economy began to recover and social indicators also began to improve. Fernandez has been in power since 2004.
He maintained that from the beginning of the 1990s, the starting point for the Millennium Development Goals, the Dominican population increased by 35%, going from 7.2 million in 1990 to 9.7 million at the present time. "The GDP rose from approximately RD$123 billion pesos, that is US$22 billion dollars, to RD$342 billion pesos, or, what is today, US$50 billion dollars", he stated. Another factor that he said conspired against the country's achievement of the Millennium Goals, according to Fernandez, was the global financial and economic crisis that emerged at the end of 2007, and which is still in place, as a result of the slow and still fragile growth in the world economy.
Local sources attribute political patronage, rising and widespread government corruption and lack of political will on the part of the Fernandez administration to invest in collective human development areas over the past six years as the reasons for the setbacks in reducing poverty. Hoy reports that even a multimillion-peso government pilot program in El Seibo failed to make a difference in that province being one of the poorest in the country. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) 44.3% of the Dominican population lives in poverty.
www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2010/9/21/342802/Cifras-no-colocan-muy-bien-a-RD-en-el-cumplimiento-de-los-ODM (http://www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2010/9/21/342802/Cifras-no-colocan-muy-bien-a-RD-en-el-cumplimiento-de-los-ODM)
www.perspectivaciudadana.com/contenido.php?itemid=25868 (http://www.perspectivaciudadana.com/contenido.php?itemid=25868)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
The Dominican leader attributed the difficulty in complying with this goal to unforeseeable circumstances, both internal as well as external. The main reason he gave was the internal financial crisis in 2003, when several Dominican banks were severely affected. "As a result of that crisis, the economy shrunk by 0.3%, the currency was devalued 100%, inflation shot up at an alarming rate and unemployment increased from 13% to 19%". He added that in this context, poverty, instead of being reduced, was increased, and it was not until 2005 that the national economy began to recover and social indicators also began to improve. Fernandez has been in power since 2004.
He maintained that from the beginning of the 1990s, the starting point for the Millennium Development Goals, the Dominican population increased by 35%, going from 7.2 million in 1990 to 9.7 million at the present time. "The GDP rose from approximately RD$123 billion pesos, that is US$22 billion dollars, to RD$342 billion pesos, or, what is today, US$50 billion dollars", he stated. Another factor that he said conspired against the country's achievement of the Millennium Goals, according to Fernandez, was the global financial and economic crisis that emerged at the end of 2007, and which is still in place, as a result of the slow and still fragile growth in the world economy.
Local sources attribute political patronage, rising and widespread government corruption and lack of political will on the part of the Fernandez administration to invest in collective human development areas over the past six years as the reasons for the setbacks in reducing poverty. Hoy reports that even a multimillion-peso government pilot program in El Seibo failed to make a difference in that province being one of the poorest in the country. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) 44.3% of the Dominican population lives in poverty.
www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2010/9/21/342802/Cifras-no-colocan-muy-bien-a-RD-en-el-cumplimiento-de-los-ODM (http://www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2010/9/21/342802/Cifras-no-colocan-muy-bien-a-RD-en-el-cumplimiento-de-los-ODM)
www.perspectivaciudadana.com/contenido.php?itemid=25868 (http://www.perspectivaciudadana.com/contenido.php?itemid=25868)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)