Poster Session 3, 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM: Room 165 [D11]

Improving the Critical Infrastructure of Puerto Rico

Presenter: David Diaz Jr

Faculty Sponsor: Emma Downs

School: Fitchburg State University

Research Area: Business & Economics

ABSTRACT

The island of Puerto Rico is an American territory with aging, centralized power grid, climate vulnerability leading to economic stagnation and prolonged outages. The island has a rich history that gives many answers on why there is a weak infrastructure in the first place. This project will examine a brief history on the island and the policies negatively affecting their economy. Infrastructure weakness directly affects GDP negatively, creates business instability, and lowers long-term economic resilience. This presentation/paper examines funding challenges, modernizing energy sources, policy reforms and economic impact projections. Puerto Rico has many policies that allocate resources towards the general goal of economic resilience which will be examined. Stabilizing population loss and strengthening long-term climate resilience will be demonstrated directly correlating to increase in GDP. Puerto Rico is comparable to other parts of the world that modernized their infrastructure leading to better quality of life and higher economic output. Puerto Rico is in debt to a mix of bondholders directly affecting the ability to maximize infrastructure to repay that debt lower. Puerto Rico with this investment can boost business competition and increase investment around the island. These examinations of this subject will determine the increase in production the island will have without the set backs. I want to see the island that I am ethnically from, succeed.