GFDD coordinates meetings for President Fernández’s DC visit

During his recent official State visit  to the US, President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic met with President Obama in Washington DC for talks regarding the relationship between the US and Latin America. It was an important discussion as around 40 million latinos actually live in the USA, more than two million of them are Dominican, and Latin America and the US do more than $250 billion in trade annually.

During the Visit,
from June 12-14, President Fernández, who is the honorary head of GFDD/FUNGLODE, also took the opportunity to present on a number of pertinent matters of mutual interest to several academic and development institutions, who already have solid partnerships with GFDD/FUNGLODE.

Speaking at DC’s George Washington University to over 250 students, faculty administrators, alumni and area professionals, where various Dominican Institutions have close
collaborative partnerships, President Fernández referred to these ties and welcomed their continued development. He thanked GWU head, Stephen Knapp for his association and said the University’s modern outlook in these combined areas have proven invaluable for the DR.

He also spoke about the recovery efforts taking place in Haiti six months after the devastating earthquake. The President believes it will take at least  ten  years for
Haiti to recover and will cost $10 Billion but this time a full recovery will be creating a more modernised  integrated nation with a better educated, healthier population with proper access  to water  and electricity  utilities. He implored the international community to pay their pledges in a timely manner, as only 10 % of monies have so far been received.

The question of Honduras was also discussed in the context of the history of
democracy in Latin America and he argued that the region has to find a balance between a more market -oriented democracy and a state-centric democracy. A new formula that combines both state and market, and that extends democratic accountability, needs to be found.

The President also spoke about the global economic crisis.  He noted that not one bank in Latin America had failed in recent times but that hadn’t meant there had been no
impact.   Unemployment had dramatically increased as trade declined resulting in some stark reductions to the governments own   income flows.   It has indeed been a difficult time causing fiscal deficits to develop and   “we are still in a very slow weak recovery. You cannot cut spending because then you will increase inflation. You have to make the economy grow. Once you make the economy stronger then we deal
with the fiscal deficit and the debt” he asserted.

President Fernandez delivered a similar message during his meeting about current events in Latin America with Inter-American Dialogue President Michael Shifter and President Emeritus Peter Hakim, and also discussed the adverse impact of drug trafficking and organized transnational crime that he and other world leaders are committed to combating.
 
He also called on Jessica
Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the foreign-policy think-tank dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States.

Related links:

http://www.thedialogue.org/
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/
http://blogs.gwhatchet.com/newsroom/2010/07/13/latin-american-president-touts-democracy-relief-efforts-in-region/#2