The Superintendent of Pensions, Francisco A. Torres, affirmed that linking pension funds with tourism investment is a key element for boosting sustainable growth in the DR, since every month some 147,000 workers in the tourism industry contribute to the pension system, equivalent to 7% of all contributors.
“The tourism sector has been one of the most impacted by the pension funds through the financing of different types of projects. Proof of this is the most recent data from the Dominican Association of Investment Fund Management Companies (ADOSAFI), which points to tourism as the first sector of economic activity with investments from pension funds channeled through investment funds, with an amount exceeding 23 billion pesos, representing 33 percent of investments,” he indicated.
He pointed out that there is still 15% slack for pension funds to continue investing in the tourism sector through investment funds, since the current maximum investment limit is 25%.
Additionally, he mentioned that there is the potential for these resources to be destined to the sector through financial instruments that could be issued by the tourism developers themselves.
The Superintendent of Pensions also called for more companies in the tourism sector to be motivated to finance their projects with pension fund resources and encouraged those present to promote pension education in their institutions.
In the same scenario, he made some remarks about the system, in which he informed that out of the 2.1 million active contributors, together with their employers, they contribute more than 7 billion pesos per month to the system.
He pointed out that the accumulated volume of pension funds since June 2003 to date is about 1.2 trillion pesos, which currently represents 18% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Torres made these statements during his presentation in the panel “Regulations in Tourism Investment Matters”, together with the Superintendents of Banks, Alejandro Fernández W., and of the Securities Market, Ernesto Bournigal, during the celebration of the sixth Tourism Investment Forum of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the DR (Asonahores).
Source: Arecoa.com
