Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Cement Producers Association (Adocem) hosted its customary Christmas gathering, where its president Osvaldo Oller stressed the need to create new strategies to materialize sustainable and inclusive growth in the country.

“What we currently require is a deep transformation in the way to do things, we cannot limit ourselves to do better what we’ve been doing until now, and instead  we must identify new strategies to define and reach high-priority objectives as a country. For us there’re three key areas to support sustainable and inclusive growth: education, infrastructure and productive development and innovation,” Oller said.

During the event the economist and invited speaker Eduardo Garcia Michel headed an exchange of ideas on Dominican Republic’s economic perspective for 2012. “I see an economy with great potential for healthy growth, but mounted on the dynamic expansion of the export sector of goods and services. I believe that the core of the economic policy will change to those under the stimulus of the activities exposed to global competition, and that will serve to spur the demand of he other sectors.”

“Common sense shows that after the elections it will be advisable to go to the IMF to negotiate a program that helps the fiscal consolidation and contributes to solve some of the challenges still pending debate, but to be sure, always with the country’s willingness for exert self-criticism,” Garcia said, noting that, “hopefully that’s the last time we’ll need to do so, because it would mean we’ll have acquired the self-discipline we need and the ability to advance to create solutions to the problems before they become serious.”

Cement makers

Oller noted that the companies grouped in Adocem, “have characterized themselves for our innovating proposals, we constantly invested in improving the quality of our products, in research, better guarantees, assistance and service; for the next few years we want to increasingly widen, expand and promoted the good use of concrete and cement in areas where they clearly have great advantages such as it in housing, in the roadbeds for highways and local roads, and infrastructure works.”

Government officials, executives of the various cement companies nationwide as well as associates and opinion leaders attended the cocktail held last week in the M Kitchen Restaurant.