Increased Internet Access Fosters Growth in the Dominican Republic

What is fueling the surprising economic growth in the Dominican Republic? According to news reports, in the rather dismal global economy of 2009 the country showed an overall growth of 2%, in comparison with an average loss of 2% for the rest of the Caribbean. Since 2000, the percentage of the population with access to the internet has grown exponentially, hovering around 30%. Is the expansion of technology partly responsible for the country’s relative prosperity?

In the coastal areas of the Dominican Republic, communities of resort hotels and restaurants cater to tourists, serving food that most locals can’t afford to buy. Inland, some individuals have multiple cell phones, while entire families go without a single telephone line. That said, in only ten years the citizenry have gained considerably more access to the rapidly developing global online community.

While the service industry accounts for the majority of the gross domestic product, the expansion of internet access may also have inadvertently fueled growth in this area. In other words, now that the Dominican Republic has a means of communicating easily and effectively with the outside world, more tourists have become aware of it as a potential destination, thereby increasing its revenue.

Service industries do ultimately benefit the local population. Most of the resorts employ locals, who correspondingly use their earnings to buy food, pay their rent, and buy other commodities. Additionally, while many disparities exist between the local population and the tourist oriented communities, there is not a sense of hostility or overt danger. Instead, there is a slightly more reciprocal feeling, as between trading partners: we’ll allow you the use of our island, as long as you pay handsomely for the privilege. Ironically, the Dominican Republic’s rates are still not as high as other popular resort destinations, primarily because while it is gaining in popularity, the country is still not as popular for Western tourists as Jamaica or Mexico.

The overall impact of the internet, and the corresponding growth of the Dominican Republic, shall be profiled at year’s end once more data becomes available. The country is a fascinating case study for the economic growth potential of the internet.