NewsWhore
09-13-2007, 05:50 PM
El Salvador Vice President Ana Vilma Albanez de Escobar said yesterday that job creation is the most effective social investment a government can make to fight poverty. The Vice President spoke yesterday at the American Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon.
During her talk, she recommended the DR adopt development strategies that have worked well in El Salvador to take better advantage of DR-CAFTA and increase trade with El Salvador. As reported in Hoy, she said that one of the biggest challenges of DR-CAFTA is that small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the free trade agreement, not just big business.
She spoke of the El Salvador government program to quadruple El Salvador exports in the next 10 years. The strategy focuses on enhancing the country's image and business competitiveness. She mentioned programs are in place to turn El Salvador into a bilingual nation in 10 years.
Priority is being given to education, given what she described as the direct correlation between quality of life and education. She explained that 2.9% of the DGP, or 14.5% of the national budget is dedicated to education. Nevertheless, she says this is not enough. She commented that the Ministry of Education in El Salvador has built 500 Internet technology classrooms, and parents of students have funded another 1,023.
She commented that El Salvador food exports have increased after the signing of DR-CAFTA. One of the snags is monitoring intellectual property.
Albanez said that El Salvador could become a doorway for Dominican exports to Central America. She challenged Dominican businessmen to explore the trade opportunities.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
During her talk, she recommended the DR adopt development strategies that have worked well in El Salvador to take better advantage of DR-CAFTA and increase trade with El Salvador. As reported in Hoy, she said that one of the biggest challenges of DR-CAFTA is that small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the free trade agreement, not just big business.
She spoke of the El Salvador government program to quadruple El Salvador exports in the next 10 years. The strategy focuses on enhancing the country's image and business competitiveness. She mentioned programs are in place to turn El Salvador into a bilingual nation in 10 years.
Priority is being given to education, given what she described as the direct correlation between quality of life and education. She explained that 2.9% of the DGP, or 14.5% of the national budget is dedicated to education. Nevertheless, she says this is not enough. She commented that the Ministry of Education in El Salvador has built 500 Internet technology classrooms, and parents of students have funded another 1,023.
She commented that El Salvador food exports have increased after the signing of DR-CAFTA. One of the snags is monitoring intellectual property.
Albanez said that El Salvador could become a doorway for Dominican exports to Central America. She challenged Dominican businessmen to explore the trade opportunities.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)