President Leonel Fern?ndez gave an inspirational state-of-the-address speech at the National Assembly on Saturday, 27 of February. In his two and a half hour talk he listed innumerable indicators on why he has no doubt that the DR is much better off today than six years ago. From The Economist’s forecast that the DR will have the largest growth rate in the world in 1999 to the fact that 40% of all Dominican households today have washing machines and the number of motor vehicles has tripled from 200,000 in 1992 to 600,000 in 1998, the statesman seemed to imply that the nation is moving ahead to modernization and he would do all possible to keep it on that track. He stated the nation had grown an average of 7.8% average in the first two years of his administration. President Fern?ndez stressed that the internal dynamism of the economy is so strong, that the enormous cost of Hurricane Georges has not set the country back.
