Thursday, November 16, 2006

CII meeting on Dominican Republic 16 November


The meeting was in honour of Mr Eddy Martinez, Minister of IT and Investment promotion. This is his fourth visit to India. He is the one who took the initiative to open the Dominican Embassy in Delhi. In his speech, he said DR and Latin America, in general consider China as a challenge but India as a partner. He ponted out that DR lost thousands of jobs as a result of Chinese competition. This positive attitude towards India is good news for the Indian businessmen.
In my speech I said Dominican Republic(DR) offers scope for pleasure and business. The beautiful beach resorts, great golf courses, merengue music and the warm and friendly people make DR as an attractive destination.
DR imports in 2005 were 10 billion dollars and exports 6 billion dollars. Even if India gets one percent of their total imports, it should come to 100 million dollar exports. Per capita income of DR is over 6000 dollars. Growth rate in 2005 was over 9 percent. Number of tourists who visited DR in 2005 were 4.2 million. The macroeconomic fundamentals are becoming strong.
With its FTA with USA, it is an attractive destination for investment. An Indian IT company and a medical equipment company have invested already.
The dynamic Dominican Ambassador Hans Dannenburg and Miss Canela give one year multi entry visas with a smile and handshake and cigar and rum!!




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