On Tuesday, 24 April 2018 at the Presidential Palace, President Danilo Medina held a meeting with cabinet ministers to push forward more projects for border provinces. At the end of the meeting, he gave 15 days to receive a list of the programs and projects being implemented and new ones that could be implemented for economic development on the border.
Gustavo Montalvo, Minister of the Presidency, highlighted that the border provinces are the poorest and most socially vulnerable in the country. He said that is why the Presidency is giving priority to the area.
At the meeting, President Medina stressed the need to carry out strategic initiatives to facilitate investment and development of new businesses with capacity to create many jobs to reduce unemployment at the border. Discussed at the meeting were possibilities of increasing opportunities for locals to supply products for the public school food programs in the area.
Meeting with President Medina also were Defense Minister Lieutenant General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem; Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito; and deputy ministers of the Presidency Sina del Rosario and Industry & Commerce, Ignacio Méndez; Yokasta Guzmán, Procurement Agency director; Luis Estrella Pichardo, executive director of the Council for Coordination of the Special Border Zone Development (CCDF); Julio Mariñez, director of the Institute for Development and Cooperative Credit (Idecoop); Mayra Jiménez, director of the Program for the National Council of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Promipyme); Osmar Benítez, president of the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD); Carlos Segura Foster, director of the Agriculture Bank (Bagricola), and Rene Jáquez, director of the National Institute for Student Welfare (Inabie).
Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo, said that “the policy of improving border security requires that efforts foster economic activity, in order to avoid a reduction of the Dominican presence in the provinces of our border.”
The participants in the meeting also reviewed the progress and pending challenges for the development of Pedernales and the Bay of Manzanillo in Monte Cristi with its port, initiatives that the Presidency considers essential for the growth of the region.
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Presidencia
25 April 2018
