Business wants more credit

[NewsWhore]

The Dominican Republic Industrial Association (AIRD) will request meetings with the Dominican Banking Association (ABA) as well as with government financial control entities in order to obtain more credit for local industries. The industrialists are particularly interested in obtaining credit for capital goods, and they are finding that the recent restrictions imposed on banks have moved most credit towards consumer items rather than productive credits. Before the 2003 banking crisis, about 20% of credit went to consumer- orientated loans. The current situation was part of the conversation during Hoy newspaper's weekly Economic Meeting. The AIRD representatives, headed by Manuel Diez Cabral, said that the main issues concerning the local industrial sector included the need to really remove tariffs on raw materials and capital goods. One of the good points that the AIRD commission found with the pending DR-CAFTA agreement was the fact that many of the trade benefits conceded under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) were soon to be removed, but under the DR-CAFTA agreement, they will become permanent incentives for local industry. At the same time, the executives saw that there was more leeway for securing raw materials from different countries, and this would allow Dominican products a better chance of entering the US market.

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