The next step for the artificial island project is to get congressional approval of the contract that was signed on Wednesday between Sociedad Canadiense Santo Domingo Re-Development, the project promoter, and the Dominican government. Engineer Eulogio Santaella, the president of the promoting company, expects the Executive Branch to send the contract to Congress soon. During a press conference yesterday he said that the signing of the contract is the endorsement for the project to comply with all that the Dominican constitution requires of such a venture. The contract signed on Wednesday gives the go-ahead for the development of an artificial island off the shore of George Washington Ave. (the Malecon) with a total foreign investment of US$450 million (see DR1 news archives 16 June 2005).