El Caribe reports on the first months of operations of a jeans manufacturing plant at the new Ouanaminthe Industrial Park – an operation financed by a US$8-million loan from the World Bank. Five hundred employees at the park produce 30,000 pairs of jeans a week and the plan is to increase production to 100,000 units a week. The factory, located on the Haitian-Dominican border, represents a local investment by Grupo M in order to access to the Haitian quota for pants. The Haitian workers receive job training, support from medical and dental clinic on the premises and their meals at a cafeteria. During a tour of the operation that included the Archbishop of Santiago; Monsignor Ramon de la Rosa y Carpio; and the rector of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, Monsignor Agripino Nunez, the president of the group, Fernando Capellan, highlighted that the efficiency has been as good as that in the Dominican Republic. Future plans include the operation of a t-shirt center with capacity to produce 80,000 dozens of units a week. Grupo M is described as the largest manufacturing free zone operation in the Dominican Republic and Central America, with 12,000 employees in 22 business units. Capellan highlighted that the investment is of support to the border area, where it is direly needed in view of the high unemployment rates. There is widespread understanding that whatever helps Haitians in Haiti, reduces the migration pressures on indigent Haitians and thus is good for the Dominican Republic.