GMH Editorial: RD-CAFTA May Benefit the BOP

© José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, PhD

Interdependent Consultant on Electricity

Organic Seed of Millennium Hispaniola Group (GMH)

August 13^th, 2005

 

GMH disagrees with experts quoted by IEEE-USA Eye on Washington, which reports that "Analysts expect that--as occurred in Mexico--CAFTA will attract foreign direct investment and boost Central American exports in certain sectors, but will provide little benefit to the rural and urban poor of the region. Source.

 

We see DR-CAFTA not as a big problem for the poor, but as a great opportunity to develop Hispaniola to "provide big benefits to the rural and urban poor of the region." One of the niches to forward our aim is the electricity market of the Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP) in Dominican Republic, and later on in Haiti and in Central America. We see also that to get out of the circling tunnel requires seeing the light and changing the system.

 

As I have suggested in a commentary at the American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic, the Dominican people have a great opportunity to implement a strategy that self reinforces the electric power sector with the development of an information society. Such a strategy will mitigate, as soon as possible, the three most pressing issues perceived at the moment: Inflation, delinquency and blackouts, as DR-CAFTA can be used to reap the opportunity to change the system to one where the term blackout (societal definition) will be considered to be a term out of the Dark Ages, as Professor Fred C. Schweppe, of MIT, brilliantly predicted. Let's create the environment to attract the right kind of direct foreign investments, by embracing to completely liberate the electricity market. Let DR-CAFTA work to increase our interdependency by taking the initiative to make the blackout a thing of the past, here and elsewhere.

 

The principal means to develop the markets at the BOP are high tech and high touch to reach each individual customer, just as the telephone industry is practically able to do it. If you are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel too, and want to commit resources to get there, we want you to join us in the effort.  Please write a brief summary of what you can do to further profitable investments at the BOP and we will gladly publish it.