Dr. Fenández Urges Latin America and the Caribbean to Rethink Their Production Model

The president of GFDD/Funglode, Dr. Leonel Fernández, affirmed that the region of Latin America and the Caribbean should rethink their production model in order to regain economic growth and to be able to face global challenges.

Fernández, who is also president of the EU-LAC Foundation, made the statement at his keynote speech, on Tuesday, at the II International Conference “With all and for the good of all”, that is taking place at the
Palacio de las Convenciones  since this past Monday.

In his lecture, which dealt with “Global Tendencies in an Age of Uncertainty", the former president of the Dominican Republic, mentioned that in 2015 the Latin American and Caribbean region in general only grew 0.4%, and cited the cases of Brazil and Venezuela, which shrank 0.4 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

The statesman explained that this situation is due to the fact
that in the last 10 years the productive market of the region has been characterized by the exportation of oil, natural gas, copper, soybeans and other products to China, a country whose economy has fallen into a state of deceleration due to the stagnation of the economic growth in Europe.

To analyze the situation, Fernández said that the future of the Latin American and Caribbean region cannot continue depending on the exportation of
commodities without added value.

In that sense, he said that the future of the region will be based on how they will transform their natural resources into products with a higher added value, for the purpose of becoming part of a global chain of values.

“We are talking about an economy of knowledge, and knowledge is higher education, science, technology and innovation, where Cuba has given great lessons to the whole world," said
Fernández.

In another of his interventions, the Dominican political leader said that the current collapse of international oil prices is due to geopolitical reasons. He explained that oil prices are so low because there is competition between Saudi Arabia and the United States gas producers, where the latter does not want to lose market share.

Similarly, he said politics have reduced the production capacity of the gas sector in the United States, which
allows this situation to affect Russia, avoiding it to have prominence on the world market.

Fernández predicted, however, that so far as the geopolitical objectives are achieved, the oil price will recover.