Molina Achécar, the engineer who serves as president of Grupo BHD, one of the Dominican Republic's largest banking and financial services groups, urged young business leaders to take on a bigger role in solving the country's problems during a speech at a monthly luncheon hosted by AMCHAMDR, the American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic.
The opinion piece describing his address called him the Yoda of the country's bankers, a wise and prudent elder who speaks slowly and quietly, choosing every word with care. At the luncheon, it said, he delivered his points wrapped in courtesy and good humor.
AMCHAMDR is one of the Dominican Republic's most prominent business associations, regularly gathering executives from Dominican and American companies at its luncheons.
He directed his opening remarks at young entrepreneurs, noting that the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs, known as ANJE, is already preparing for debates around 2028 and recognizes that it needs to speak out more forcefully.
Business guilds and the private sector's role
Molina Achécar said business guilds have played an insubstantial role in recent years and that a voice was needed to wake them up. He said private enterprise, which generates 85 percent of the Dominican Republic's gross domestic product, plays a role in the country's economic and social progress that is non-negotiable and cannot be replaced by public efforts alone.
He said the great challenge facing companies today is reconciling their economic viability with the participation expected of them in solving society's biggest problems.
He also called for innovation, staff training and better management practices to raise productivity, which he described as a pending task even as the Dominican Republic posts growth rates that international organizations have praised.
Education called the country's central problem
Molina Achécar closed his speech by returning to what he called the main problem facing Dominican society: education. He said the long-pursued transformation of the education system still has not arrived, despite having cost the country's taxpayers more than 50,000 million dollars, roughly $50 billion, in recent years.
For years, Molina Achécar has promoted the idea that companies, and banks in particular, should help build a better society rather than simply a richer one, a philosophy reflected in Grupo BHD's public advertising campaigns.
