Reporting from the United States, Caribbean expert John Collins called the Eighth Annual Dominican Week in the US a successful tour. Two dozen Dominican government officials and business leaders focused on DR business and culture in panels and discussions in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miami, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and New York and New Jersey. Collins highlights the participation of Vice President Milagros Ortíz Bosch in the prestigious Council of the Americas luncheon in New York City. Over half of those in attendance represented the US business world, says Collins. He writes that the number of attendees commented on the hands-on, no-nonsense approach of the Dominican Vice President. Lawyer by profession and former Santo Domingo Senator, Vice President Ortíz Bosch serves concurrently as Minister of Education. During her talk, Vice President Ortíz highlighted the major sectors of the Dominican economy are tourism, free trade zones, agro-industry and telecommunications. "We have reached an inventory of 51,000 rooms in the DR and presently there are more than 5,000 new rooms under construction," said Ortíz Bosch. "Last year we hosted 2.6 million visitors and they injected US$2.5 billion into our economy." The Vice President described the steps being pursued by the Mejía administration to make the DR even more attractive for foreign investment including improving and expanding the infrastructure, experiencing strain after seven years of 7%+ unprecedented growth rates. She described the preferential trade benefits of a combination of US market trade access through CBI-CBPTA and with the European Union under Lomé Convention. "These are to be significantly expanded under new trade agreements with Central America and the Caribbean Community (Caricom)," said Ortíz. "Their ratification by our Congress is expected before year’s end and President Mejía is pledged to signing them into law," she said. During a hectic schedule in NY, the Vice President met with Forbes Magazine chairman Steve Forbes and visited Merrill Lynch and the New York Stock Exchange. Collins reports that the cultural highlight of the New York participation of Vice President Ortíz was the gala fete at the New York Historical Society honoring Julia Alvarez, author of the widely acclaimed "Night of the Butterflies", which chronicles the tragedy of the Mirabal sisters in the Trujillo era. For more information on Dominican Week, see http://www.rvhb.com/dominican.htm
