NewsWhore
11-17-2011, 02:00 PM
Yesterday the business sector presented four of the candidates for next year's presidential elections with their proposals aimed at permitting the country "to break the inertia and transform the nation."
The proposals include a comprehensive tax reform, the elimination of distorted taxes such as the 1.5% tax on anticipated Income Tax and the 1% on financial assets, more investment in education and improve the labor code.
They also suggest a complete cleanup of the National Police and the Armed Forces, taking measures to improve their members' income levels and living conditions, as well as implementing a real security plan and fighting organized and transnational crime.
The proposals by the business community, which were drawn up during the "Fourth National Business Convention" which was held all over the country, were presented to Danilo Medina, Hipolito Mejia, Eduardo Estrella and Max Puig. The PLD vice-presidential candidate was also on hand. In a closing speech, the president of the National Business Council (CONEP) Manuel Diez Cabral called attention to the principal problems and challenges and said that despite the economic growth, with an average rate of increase of the GDP of 5.7% during the first decade, "there has been backsliding in health, the quality of education, citizen safety, competitiveness and the creation of jobs in the formal sector."
He told the candidates that the Dominican Republic could only change "with a firm and active political leadership which guides us along the roads to development with the participation of the private sector and all social sectors, including the opposition political parties. We have to break a lot of taboos and ways of thinking that have dominated us for years." He said that the country should have been investing more than 4% in education years ago, stressing that it was the best way to obtain progress.
Diez Cabral said that they cannot continue carrying out temporary tax reforms, because they cannot continue to collecting from the sectors that pay and cited the fact that the tax burden with obligatory payments to Social Security of 2.3%, represents 15% of the GDP and with additional expenses it goes to 26% for the formal sectors and 10% in the informal sector. He stated that there is no other option than to reinvent the way the State collects and spends tax money, through a thorough tax reform. He added that the time has come to improve the quality of expenditure and attack tax evasion, broaden the tax base and reduce informality. He went on to say that a critical issue for the country is the need to promote and increase exports, but without taxing them, as a way of dealing the informal employment. He suggested that the financial system should channel more resources to production and less to consumption and that the Central Bank should regulate and not compete and allow competitive interest rates.
The Conep president reminded the presidential candidates that the power of the social networks is a reality and to ignore it "will lead us to failure" and he pointed put that the country's geographical size is not an important factor when it comes to competing, since the countries with the highest income per capita are the smallest in size, like Qatar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Bermuda and Singapore, all of which are smaller than the Dominican Republic.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
The proposals include a comprehensive tax reform, the elimination of distorted taxes such as the 1.5% tax on anticipated Income Tax and the 1% on financial assets, more investment in education and improve the labor code.
They also suggest a complete cleanup of the National Police and the Armed Forces, taking measures to improve their members' income levels and living conditions, as well as implementing a real security plan and fighting organized and transnational crime.
The proposals by the business community, which were drawn up during the "Fourth National Business Convention" which was held all over the country, were presented to Danilo Medina, Hipolito Mejia, Eduardo Estrella and Max Puig. The PLD vice-presidential candidate was also on hand. In a closing speech, the president of the National Business Council (CONEP) Manuel Diez Cabral called attention to the principal problems and challenges and said that despite the economic growth, with an average rate of increase of the GDP of 5.7% during the first decade, "there has been backsliding in health, the quality of education, citizen safety, competitiveness and the creation of jobs in the formal sector."
He told the candidates that the Dominican Republic could only change "with a firm and active political leadership which guides us along the roads to development with the participation of the private sector and all social sectors, including the opposition political parties. We have to break a lot of taboos and ways of thinking that have dominated us for years." He said that the country should have been investing more than 4% in education years ago, stressing that it was the best way to obtain progress.
Diez Cabral said that they cannot continue carrying out temporary tax reforms, because they cannot continue to collecting from the sectors that pay and cited the fact that the tax burden with obligatory payments to Social Security of 2.3%, represents 15% of the GDP and with additional expenses it goes to 26% for the formal sectors and 10% in the informal sector. He stated that there is no other option than to reinvent the way the State collects and spends tax money, through a thorough tax reform. He added that the time has come to improve the quality of expenditure and attack tax evasion, broaden the tax base and reduce informality. He went on to say that a critical issue for the country is the need to promote and increase exports, but without taxing them, as a way of dealing the informal employment. He suggested that the financial system should channel more resources to production and less to consumption and that the Central Bank should regulate and not compete and allow competitive interest rates.
The Conep president reminded the presidential candidates that the power of the social networks is a reality and to ignore it "will lead us to failure" and he pointed put that the country's geographical size is not an important factor when it comes to competing, since the countries with the highest income per capita are the smallest in size, like Qatar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Bermuda and Singapore, all of which are smaller than the Dominican Republic.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)