The head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stated at the end of his official visit to the Dominican Republic that the Dominican authorities put forward “already very concrete” ideas and even “some unexpected proposals” for a “partnership with Portugal”.
“In the Dominican Republic today we found a president and a government – and two-thirds of the government was there, speaking governor by governor, folder by folder – who had done their job, knew in detail what they wanted from Portugal,” declared Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the end of a one-day official visit on Thursday, the first by a Portuguese head of state to this Caribbean country.
Speaking at a Santo Domingo hotel in front of Portuguese emigrants and representatives of companies present in the Dominican Republic, the President of the Republic added: “I’m really sorry I can’t tell you what it was like, because it was banzos, or banzados as they say in Minho, where my roots are, with the level of detail and even the sophistication of some unexpected proposals that came up, almost implausible, in that sense the importance of the Dominican Republic in cooperation with Portugal”.
PR invited the counterpart from the Dominican Republic to visit Portugal this year, at the time of the Web Summit
“I think expectations were far exceeded,” said the Portuguese head of state, who during his visit invited his counterpart Luis Abinader to visit Portugal this year on the occasion of the Web Summit.
Talking to journalists Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa referred to the Dominican economy as “the second most growing in all of Latin America and the Caribbean” and expressed his impression with the sectoral cooperation proposals put forward during the bilateral talks of this visit.
The head of state gave some examples of “already very concrete ideas” from the Dominican authorities: “Will we continue in the ports in the connection between Caucedo and Sines? Shall we do a joint project on green hydrogen? Will we need a lot of wind energy, we have wind and the Portuguese are good at that”.
“And they gave a series of very concrete directions, very concrete projects that they had come up with, the homework prepared very well,” he affirmed, concluding, “So it was very worthwhile, a very quick visit”.
In his opinion, the Dominicans “like the idea of having Portugal play a special role, and finding solutions to favor the Portuguese position, to balance” with other countries, for “diversification”.
“This is promising, but it’s up to you, you’re in the right place at the right time,” he stated, adding: “If we don’t fill the place, another one, who’s right behind that, will come behind the tree, waiting to enter”.
Representatives from Altice and Mota-Engil were present at this meeting at a hotel in Santo Domingo, and the General Director of the World Organization for Migration (IOM), António Vitorino, was also present.
The King of Spain, Felipe VI, who was in the same hotel, went to greet Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“Historical” visit
He spoke before the President of the Republic the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, described this visit as “historic” and “the beginning of another era in an always friendly relationship, an old relationship” between Portugal and the Dominican Republic.
According to the minister, “if there was a central feature of the dialogue” between the heads of state of the two countries, “it was precisely about the opportunities that exist for economic relations”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made this official visit to the Dominican Republic before participating with Prime Minister António Costa in the 28th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Santo Domingo.
At the Dominican National Congress, the President of the Republic was applauded when he promised that Portugal would “work to bring the European Union closer to the Dominican Republic” and that “Dominicans have the same access to Europe as other Latin American countries”.
Source: DN
