Border Initiative proposed

mountainannie said:

There has long been a proposal - an incentive - on the part of the Dominican Republic - to develop the border area. The first part of this - the Groupo M plant in Dajabon - Ouanaminthe.. is actually in Haiti although the entrance inside Dominican territory.

There has just been a presentation of a new plan Haiti - Economy : Ambitious bilateral project on the border - HaitiLibre.com : Haiti news 7/7

here is a video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHVjuPcLmuU

from another post - there is the information that ..
When comparing the data of the last two censuses in 2002 and 2010, it is concluded that the Dominican population in the border provinces declined by 17,375 in eight years, while foreigners in the same period rose 29.163.

so, clearly, if there is not a strong effort to bring in businesses to this area.. the flow of migrants to the areas where this work will simply continue.

(this project will most certainly attract international investment from the World Bank)

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I'm not familiar with this Juan Vicini fellow, but I'd like to think that he fully realizes that he will operate in similar or worse conditions than Frank Rainieri had to face when establishing Punta Cana, as in, counting with zero help from the state (or in this case, both states), and that they will be the first to line up to get their cut if the projects get to be remotely successful.

As reported in Monday's DR1 News

Proposals for business development on the Haitian border
Dominican businesspeople working together as the Quisqueya Bi-National Economic Council presented their proposals for investment on the border with Haiti to visiting commissioners from the Club de Madrid, former President Andres Pastrana of Colombia and former President Sebastian Pinera of Chile last week. Juan Vicini headed the presentation of the project, which is aimed at development and job creation, during a recent meeting at Casa de Campo. As reported in Diario Libre, the project will be implemented in four sectors and geographical areas: Dajabon-Ouanaminthe for industrial development, Comendador-Belladere for farming, Jimani-Malpasse for energy, and Pedernales-Anse-a-Pitre for tourism development.
Vicini said that the Quisqueya Bilateral has already invested US$3 million in technical studies. He said the plan is to develop a US$5 billion investment fund for the projects.
PRSC deputy Victor Bisono, who is the president of the Public Policies Analysis Center (CAPP), coordinated the meeting, which took place on Saturday, 23 May 2015.
Presentan plan para la frontera a expresidentes - DiarioLibre.com

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Naked_Snake said:

I'm not familiar with this Juan Vicini fellow, but I'd like to think that he fully realizes that he will operate in similar or worse conditions than Frank Rainieri had to face when establishing Punta Cana, as in, counting with zero help from the state (or in this case, both states), and that they will be the first to line up to get their cut if the projects get to be remotely successful.

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He's the young face of the Vicini Group, already making himself visible in order to be fully in place when his dad dies and the Vicini Group needs a representative from the founding family.

He is on an idealistic streak, talking about equalizing the GDP on both sides of the border, as if a gap as big as the one that exists between DR/HT can actually be closed in one generation. At the very least, and this is assuming all the favorable variables in Haiti actually fall in place and remain there (a person has to ignore Haiti's history in order to believe that this will actually happen without a strong armed dictator on their part), it will take four generations, that's about 100 years. And that's just to get Haiti to the level the DR is right now, forget where the DR will be 100 years from now.

He lacks basic understanding of realistic economic development, especially in a case like Haiti's vis-a-vis the DR.

He has good intentions, but if that's what's need to make the world a much better place, then most of the problems, especially economic problems in developing countries, that currently plagues the world would had been solved by now.

He should take his idea and do it deep in Haiti, near Cap Haitien would be ideal. If it works, great! That's what Haiti needs, especially outside the capital. But if it doesn't work, then that's one mess that for the most part would stay in Haiti.

Attracting millions of people to both sides of the border poses a serious threat to the DR's stability in the likely event it fails.

mountainannie said:

There has long been a proposal - an incentive - on the part of the Dominican Republic - to develop the border area. The first part of this - the Groupo M plant in Dajabon - Ouanaminthe.. is actually in Haiti although the entrance inside Dominican territory.

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Sure about that?

The Dajabon River is the border, on the right is Dominican Republic and on the left is Haiti. Notice on what side of the river the Grupo M is located.

Here is a zoom in on an official map where its clear that in the Dajabon province the border never falls east of the Dajabon River.



Full Map Here





If you look closely in the first satelite image, the actual border is clearly visible by the difference in land tenure. The Haitian side is divided into tiny plots while the Dominican side is into large plots. On top of the first image the border passes over a piece of land before returning to the river, not its to the west of the river where the difference in land tenure becomes abrupt.