President Leonel Fernández returned to the US on the final lap of his 12-day international tour that has taken him to several US cities and to Taiwan. On his first day in California, the Dominican President visited the University of California at Berkeley. News reports say that the president of the university, Joseph Cermy and the dean for research David K. Leonard offered to send professors and US scientists to teach at the Instituto Tecnológico de las Américas, the high tech teaching center the government has plans to start building later this month. The institute will be part of the Santo Domingo cyberpark that will be fully developed over a 10-15 year period. The university would also be open to help train the institute’s professors, admitting Dominicans in their high tech post graduate programs. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, President Fernández toured the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, receiving explanations from the center’s director Charles Shank. The center carries out research to improve US manufacturer’s competitiveness. President Fernández is staying at the St. Francis Hotel in the center of San Francisco. He is accompanied by Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Latorre; Minister of Education Ligia Amada Melo; Technical Secretary of the Presidency Temístocles Montás; Minister of Sports Juan Marichal; and the rectors of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Miguel Rosado, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Monsignor Agripino Núñez Collado; and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Rafael Toribio. Also on the tours of California high tech training centers, research centers and businesses are Minister of Agriculture Amilcar Romero; director of the Instituto de Recursos Hidraúlicos, Frank Rodríguez. And businessmen Manuel Alejandro Grullón, Ramón Báez Figueroa, Luis Manuel Pellerano, Manuel Arturo Pellerano, Jose Clase, Fernando Capellán, Elena Viyella, Carlos Manuel Alvarez and Manuel Enrique Tavares. Part of the presidential group are also journalists Anibal de Castro and Victor Grimaldi, economist Andy Dauhajre and Rafael Rivas.
