No, no, no please not another blah, blah, blah conference.

Lio-nel Fernandez must be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most, do nothing and accomplish even less, sponsor of conferences in history.

Why are people so hard on the President? I think he' s done a lot for the development of the country. I don't know why people have to be so impatient. It take time to accomplish things. It really gets on my nerves that people have to always criticize this brilliant man for everything he does. Just look a the statistics...the Dominican Republic has never experienced the excellent economic growth, the improvements in health and education that have been accomplish in the years he's been President. Now has he not been perfect and has neglected certain issues? Absolutely!..but slowly but surely things are getting better and we have seen a lot of progress! I came from the DR to the US when I was 3 years-old and I'm 30 years-old now and even though I have only been back 5 times and stayed a few months each time, I keep up with happenings in the DR. I hope to someday return to stay because I know that at the current pace it will be a highly developed country by 2020...continued

Trust me, I do a lot of online research. At just 5% growth each year the Dominican Republic will achieve a GDP PPP per capita income of US$20,000 by the early 2020s and the UN Human Development Index has greatly improved. The HDI measures how developed a country. The jumped from 94th on the list to 79th from 2004 to 2005.. (data from 2004 was released in 2006, date from 2005 was recently released in November 2007)...DR went from a.751 score to .779 (.800 and more means high standard of development and the most advanced countries score .900 and more)... So do the math and DR could achieve .900 by 2020. We are probably just at .800 right now, but 2007 data won't be released until 2009. SO I will estimate that next year's data will give us about a .790 for the 2006 year.

No it's not. Hopefully someday LOL.

I agree with you Edward. He has done alot to modernize and develop the country. From highways, healthcare, tourism, and now the train system. Corruption still needs to be controlled and more transparency is necessary. If he can improve the energy sector significantly or solve the problem during his next term in office while continuing the economy growth and develop currently experienced in the DR, he may go down as the greatest Dominican President. He is a brillant man, I don't believe it's all talk, I think for more years in office will determine how great he really is.

My grandmother was a hardcore Peña Gomista and I remember she had a nickname for Leonel. She called him Boquita Suave. LOL. We got into arguments sometimes because I kept telling her that Leonel was a very smart man and that he was going to help the country.

I think that the current administration has done a fabolous job with the country. I am in the DR two weeks each month, and I see the changes taking place. If you only visit once every few years it may not seem like much, but trust me in 3-5 years this place will not look the same. Don't worry about the old deals, and who got what, the DR is opening its doors to the world economy, and the world is responding. There are so many deals pending in the DR right now, that will change the face of the country, and trust me if you are not doing business there already, or have deals pending it will be too late in 5 years.

It's nice to see that I'm not the only optimist here! :-)

More and more persons, especially those outside of the DR need to travel home, or travel to the DR to actually see what is happening there. It is very difficult to make opinions based on websites or other news media resources, or even other persons observations. However, if you go there and see what is happening first hand, and look at the entire picture, the Free Trade with U.S., and now with the European Union, the Toll Highway, and where it begans, ends, and all of the exits from it; the resorts and condo developments in Samana Region (where highway ends), and the expansion of Punta Cana and the All Inclusive Resort Capital of the World, and Cap Cana, which is truly amazing, and the largest Marina in the Caribbean; the Subway, the International Currency Exchange Bank being developed in Juan Dolio; the new Ship Terminals & Ports, the New expansive airports; and take a good look at Santiago, as that City is set to become the Manf Capital of the Country, Caribbean, and Central America.

Hook (1991)

Peter Banning:

Scientists are now using lawyers instead of rats for their experiments.

There are two reasons for this. The scientists don't become attached to the lawyers and there are some things rats won't do.