The head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, agreed on Monday to encourage Spanish investment in the Caribbean country in sectors other than tourism.
Sánchez and Abinader met today at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government in Madrid on the occasion of the visit to Spain of the Dominican President, prior to his participation in the XXVIII Iberoamerican Summit in Andorra.
During the meeting, the two presidents showed interest in boosting the economic and trade dimension of the relationship between the two countries and, in particular, in encouraging Spanish investment, according to the Spanish Government.
But the aim is that, in addition to tourism, investment is made in other sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, education and services.
This visit is the second trip abroad by the President of the Dominican Republic, in office since August 2020.
Sanchez congratulated Abinader on the good progress of his National Vaccination Plan, which places the Dominican Republic in second place in Latin America, behind Chile.
In this context, he conveyed Spain’s interest in ensuring that vaccines reach all citizens and highlighted Spain’s efforts to include donations from the European Union in Latin America, especially punished by the pandemic.
The head of the Spanish Executive also highlighted the work done by the Spanish Cooperation with visits to reorient itself to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the occasion of his visit to Spain, Abinader, in an interview with the president of the Efe Agency, Gabriela Cañas, has advanced that he will bring to the summit of Andorra a call for solidarity between countries to combat the pandemic and the its economic and social consequences, especially in less developed regions.
After this meeting of Sánchez with Abinader, the Spanish Government recalled that Spain has a new framework of Cooperation 2019-2022 with which it hopes to be able to accompany the new Dominican Government in the efforts for an inclusive and sustainable development.
Sustainable economic recovery will be the focus of the next Latin American summit to be organized by the Dominican Republic.
As part of this week’s Andorra summit, Spain and the Dominican Republic will sign a memorandum of understanding for political consultations with which the two countries seek to improve the bases for strengthening their bilateral relationship.