Clusters for Santiago

[NewsWhore]

According to Cristian Reyna and Carlos Fondeur, the president and executive director of FONDESA, the Development Fund, the creation of small clusters could provide thousands of jobs for workers affected by the recent spate of factory closures in the free zones of Santiago and the surrounding area. According to Reyna, workers could get together in small units and use the skills acquired in the large free zone factories to create smaller workshops and produce goods for the local markets. Hoy newspaper says that FONDESA would provide financing and management training. According to the executives, this system of production could provide jobs for 12,000 people in the area, and represents an intelligent use of the personnel trained in some of the most modern textile shops in the world. FONDESA has RD$550 million available for small-scale industries, part of its RD$9.0 billion budget for projects of this type all over the Dominican Republic. In the Cibao Valley alone there is a need for RD$3.0 billion. FONDESA does not use state funds for its projects, and most of its money comes from commercial banks and business institutions that support micro-business.

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