Ambassador David Ward attributed to a lack of advertising the decline in the number of British travelers to the DR. British travel peaked in 1998 at 200,000, dropping to 100,000 in 1999. He said the outlook for this year is 110,000 to 115,000 visitors from the UK. Speaking on Channel 9’s Aeromundo television show, the ambassador said that British investment in the past four years is about US$400 million. He said that Dominican exports increased 22% from 1998 to 1999. Dominicans exported US$45 million in goods from the UK and imported US$60 million. Ward expressed his hope that now that the party that is majority in Congress won the Presidency, several important bills for the economy and attracting foreign investment would be passed. Ward highlighted that most of British investment was in electricity, banking, free zone development and cement manufacturing. (25 September 2000)
