SANTO DOMINGO.- The Industry and Commerce minister revealed that in the coming weeks the country will experience a rate of foreign investment which the country has not seen in the last 50 years.

Francisco Javier Garcia said that large capitals will start coming in a few weeks "and will develop complete areas of our country seeking to use the United States as the supply center, but basically as local investments and productions."

The official said that an appreciable amount of large foreign companies awaited only for the country to enter Free Trade to initiate numerous investments that will bolster the economy and contribute thousands of new jobs. "Here there will be very pleasant surprises. It is possible that the next week we are offering the announcement of such high investments in the Dominican Republic, which had possibly not occurred in the last 50 years," he said.

"The pleasant surprises on the large investments that will take place will benefit zones far away from the Dominican capital," he said, and also predicted that prices of a large number of products will begin to drop in the coming weeks.