President Danilo Medina has expressed his gratitude to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for creating Petrocaribe, which he described as an alliance that has allowed the Dominican Republic to increase its economic and social development.
“Through Petrocaribe we receive financing for part of the oil bill, and this has meant an enormous push in the search to create a cohesive society and for making savings that have served us to enhance our national development,” said Medina in his address made yesterday, Monday 28 January at the Summit of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) that was held in Santiago, Chile.
Medina expressed his best wishes for the Venezuelan leader’s recovery. Hugo Chavez is still in hospital in Cuba following the latest in a series of cancer operations.
Medina recalled that some years ago, at the behest of then President Leonel Fernandez, he asked Chavez for assistance in financing part of the nation’s oil imports. “Later, he called for the founding of Petrocaribe, which for the Dominican Republic in particular has had an extraordinary effect,” stated Medina.
The Petrocaribe mechanism, launched by Chavez in 2005, sells oil to the Central American and Caribbean countries under favorable financing conditions.