Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez announced funding for infrastructure to launch southwestern Pedernales as a world class beach destination would come from the exchange of land in the area for infrastructure.
Jimenez told the press that the government has ordered a US$1 million master plan for the Barahona and Pedernales area that is being prepared by 30 technicians. He said foreign investors have expressed their interest in investing US$85 million in Pedernales infrastructure, that would include an aqueduct, sewage treatment plant, golf course, highway, airport and port habilitation. He said that the investment would be paid for with the exchange of land in the area where hotels would be built.
The foreign investors were not identified, but Dominican investors Luis Lopez and Marino Ginebra of Amhsa hotels announced at a following DATE press conference that the company has deposited a letter of intent at the Ministry of Tourism and is interested in investing in the area.
Despite widespread national and international opposition from the National Hotel & Restaurant Association and environmentalists, President Hipolito Mejia, shortly before leaving government, signed a controversial bill that removed the protected environmental status from national park land for the Bahia de las Aguilas area.
With the change of government, Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez, who had promoted the development of the area during his term as minister of tourism (1996-2000), has undertaken the hotel development of Pedernales as one of the priorities of his administration.
Because of difficult ground access, the seven-kilometer-long Bahia de las Aguilas beach (located between Punta Chimanche and Punta de Aguilas) is one of the few areas that has remained as it was when Columbus arrived. Environmentalists point out that the area is a scientific laboratory for Dominican and world scientists as it is the habitat of endemic and endangered fauna and flora species, such as the turtle and the manatee. Ivonne Arias of Grupo Jaragua has alerted that the construction of any type on the beach would cause its gradual erosion.
Jimenez said that plans are for Pedernales area to launch with 3,500 new hotel rooms by winter 2007.