Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez was the keynote speaker for the first of a series of online talks on relations between the Dominican Republic and Italy organized by the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Embassy of Italy in the Dominican Republic. The name of the talk was: “Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic, in the Current Economic Context Conditioned by Covid-19.”
The chamber of commerce initiative is part of a public and private sector effort to restore relations. Celso Marranzini is the president of the chamber of commerce.
During his presentation, Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez highlighted Dominican foreign policy’s new priorities, the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI), established agreements and the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
“Our President has stressed the government’s commitment to the well-being of citizens, but he has also pointed out that this can only be achieved in the context of access to the markets of our traditional trading partners, multilateralism and international cooperation,” said the foreign minister.
Alvarez said Dominican trade with Italy is mostly ferronickel, cocoa, gold and medical devices. He said there is great potential for expanded sales in the rum market, given that Italy has been increasing its global imports every year. Similarly, he noted that the Italian private sector is an important FDI source in the country. Only in 2019, according to data from the Central Bank, US$57 million were invested from Italy.
Regarding the tourism sector, he said Italy in 2019 was the sixth European country in numbers of tourists, with 93,000 visitors, after France, Russia, Germany, Spain and England. Likewise, he emphasized President Abinader has called for all hotels to open to tourists as of 1 October.
Also speaking during the conference, Italian Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Andrea Canepari recognized the important diplomatic and commercial ties and emphasized Italy’s interest in relaunching economic exchanges with the country. There are no direct flights with Italy and Dominicans are banned from visiting Italy due to the Covid-19 virus. An Italian tourist was case No. 1 for the Dominican Republic in March.
He stressed that the country has benefited mainly from Italian high technology applied to the agricultural and craft industries in terms of cooperation. He mentioned the many scholarships that have benefited Dominican professionals over the years.
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Mirex
23 September 2020