sorry you are problably not aware that d.r. pres. and shoe giant ceo met today/yesterday...
and i was asking people of higher learning if they think oil (prices) distances of shipping shoes halfway around the world might of had an issue in opening up 4 new trade zone factories in santiago...
sorry.....but . Dominican Republic to be leading shoe manufacturer
General Shoes from Taiwan is opening a factory in the Santiago Free Zone. A US$10 million investment over a period of three years, the new installation will employ 3,000 people.
General Shoes president Robert Tsai met with President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Tuesday 21 October 2014, and promised to help attract more foreign capital and turn the Dominican Republic into the Caribbean's leading shoe manufacturing location.
Tsai said that the country was positioned to become the next China and Vietnam as far as the shoe industry is concerned.
Industry and Commerce Minister Jose del Castillo Savinon said that the new factory would make large numbers of international brand shoes and was part of the work the Dominican government is doing to encourage investment in the sector.
He announced that with support from the Taiwanese industry and government, they would work to set up a National Shoe Institute to train Dominican operators and improve shoe-manufacturing processes. The Taiwanese factory will produce at least three million pairs of shoes a year. In the first year, after an investment of US$2 million, the first factory will produce one million pairs of shoes for the US and European markets. Five manufacturing plants will be installed in the Santiago free zone over a period of three years.
The team from General Shoes was accompanied by the Taiwanese ambassador in the country, Tomas Ping-Fu, economic advisor at the embassy, Jose Luis Lin, as well as Rex Deming, Andrew Blight, Jose Diaz, Dave Magness, Jay Tauer, Edilberto Rodriguez, James Yao, John Galli, Ralph Amabile and Ming Tung.
The Dominican government was also represented by Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ramon Peralta, National Free Zones Council executive director Luisa Fernandez, Free Zones Council promotion head Silvia Cochon and Dominican Free Zones Association president Aquiles Bermudez.
Presidencia de la Rep?blica Dominicana