it is so easy for Sr Vargas Maldonado to point fingers ,blaming the president for the demise of the free trade zones, and acting as though he can rectify the situation. figuring out why these businesses have folded is not rocket science. the owners of the enterprises closed the doors, packed up,and went elsewhere. i have already outlined in a prior post that with the competitiveness of cross border trading and investment, business operators are seeking the most advantageous environments in

which to conduct business. when they have all kinds of problems of logistics, finding educated and dedicated work forces, having to deal with rampant stealing of raw materials and finished products, problems of trustworthy electrical supply and a myriad of other maladies which are disruptive to production, they will look to other locations that offer a more business-friendly environment. you see, because the power elite in this country has never seen competition to be a good thing, they have

never fostered that spirit here, and therefore know nothing about competition, nor how to compete themselves. they have not evolved sufficiently to be a meaningful player in todays world. they are coming to realise, albeit very painfully, that the chickens are coming home to roost. they have stifled creativity and innovation in order to fortify the traditional inefficient monopolies, and have no clue as to how to function in the 21st century. they read too many press releases congratulating the

DR for having the fastest growing economy in latin america, but they do not analyse what the numbers mean, and what it costs to grow the GDP. it is an economic quagmire, and will only get worse if the current methodologies are allowed to remain the order of the day.

Other than the two year delay in passing CAFTA, the only other reason for the demise of the free zones was the inability of the factory owners to stay efficient. The "it always made money before" why change it mentality cost this country its successful free zone businesses.

It seems that Prez LF is being blamed for his failure to act early-on. All Dominican politicians need to be more aggressive on improving the Dominican society because their hesitation will come back to haunt them as is the case for LF. Although LF is now proactive for the FTZ but there were many jobs being done while nothing was done by the RD Gov (until closer to election time).

finding educated - WHAT? here. Forget it!

to Steve S; DR-CAFTA had to be postponed until AFTER the great one rammed the METRO down everybodys throat. otherwise, American companies would have had the right to bid on the contract. americans can be a little slow when it comes to understanding the COMISION thing, so it was better to stay with the old european guard. notice they didnt look to coachmakers with sterling reputations such as bombardier, kawasaki or other well known makes. they chose some obscure spanish trains that have long been plagued with mechanical defects. but they dont care; they will be above ground in the hummer!

forgive the error, but the line should read french trains, not spanish. they are actually made by alstom, the same company that makes the cars that the new york city transit authority found to be poorly constructed and rejected several copies.

Here are some solutions from Lio-nel.

Problems - Solution


Education - Metro

Medicine - Metro

Lack of jobs - Metro

Housing - Metro

Electricity - Metro

Bad breath - Metro

Hemorrhoids - Metro

Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera!

speaking of education a quick question to ponder: Does anyone believe that a man such as Hipolito Mejia could've gotten elected in a dominican republic where the literacty rate is at about 95% and where at least 30% of all adults have college degrees? Even though I don't have a crystal ball next to me I honestly don't think so. The bulk of the Dominican population will remain in ignorance because frankly it serves the interests of certain sectors of dominican society. It's easy to fleece and bamboozle a people who are in the dark.

you need say no more, cibaeno. maybe that is the reason why education will never become a priority. had your scenario been the case, people would demand televised debates and policy statements from candidates, and would be insulted by the flatbed trucks bedecked with provocatively clad young lasses and ear splitting loudspeakers!

Apparently this so-called profesional heard too much and too many times, his mate Hipolito Mejia speaking , otherwise, this sort of stupidities would not take place, what he knows about this at all?, only with this man uttering such words, proclaim high and aloud his complete ignorance about this point of free zones industries, nobody, not him, Lionel, or whoever is put in that chair of President can change the facts that are going on all over the world, where the economy of the big countries right at this moment are as weak as ours could be, and the buying power of goods made in this or any other country have been dimished from who put the orders, besides, with the hand labor prices of China, who can compete?, therefore, it is ludicruos from this Vargas Maldonado man to express words that he knows will never fix,

Miguel Vargas for President my mother is voting for him. Too bad I can not vote in DR. He is the most progressive politician thinker of all DR thus far to me.

Is he or is Leonel leading in the polls?

Miguelito-lavadora, you lost the eleccions go home!!!

Yeah, I agree. He needs to move on to other better things. Just get out of the public eye for a while. I mean I supported the guy, but there comes a time politicians just have to concede to the fact they have lost, not because of bad politics, but rather none or nevertheless, the people have spoken. Go home Vargas por favor amigo, fue nuesto ojos.

TO josean. You are the first one that mentions Dominican people has bad breath problem. May be, may be, you are the only one that think the Metro can cure it. If you suffer from that illness and have that problem, the solution is not the Metro. A good tooth paste and Listerine will work. For hemorrhoids I recommend you to see a real doctor. The Metro is not a doctor, it is the most advanced transportation in the region and in the Dominican Republic, for the pleasure of the dominican people.

This is for Dominican Today, take this article and this face out of here,
this is too old and past, besides that face and those words are long gone,
there should be better things to post here.

Miguelito Vargas:
Take the money you made with the land swap for nothing sale of the Hispaniola hotel to the fraudulent Spanish investors, and the Codacsa deal, the Pan Am scam all the other scams you participated in and save it for your old age retirement.
First of all your ex-boss Hipoloco Mejia will be the sorry PRD candidate again in 2012
to make things easier for whatever candidate the PLD posts, because you guys don't believe in retiring and letting some new face take a hack at the presidency.
Miguelito, you have 0 charisma and you can't speak well, so give it up! And save your money because you will lose again! In the event that Hipoloco blinks!
I know that it is hard being the "natural" son of well known Pedro Rivera who much preferred Balaguer, but even if you have had some turbulent dealings and have been condemned by the decent press in Spain for being mega corrupt, in the DR you are still brown nosed because you have the cash.
Give it up and do yourself a big favor