FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN MICHES DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Newspaper: Noticias SIN.

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http://www.antena-sin.com/noticiassin/Details.asp?id_article=7722

May 8th, 2007. 08:02: 00 A.M. INVESTORS.

Foreigners will develop ecological tourism in Miches.

The information was disclosed in the course of a meeting that was headed in this city by the American entrepreneur Ted Khell, pioneer of the tourist project in Punta Cana.

New York. - A group of foreign investors has shown interest in investing a high sum of money in a development project in the Municipality of Miches, Dominican Republic, to give impulse to that zone as an exclusive and ecological tourist destiny, preserving its natural resources, that are its main attractions.

The information was disclosed in the course of a meeting that was headed in this city by the American entrepreneur Ted Khell, pioneer of the tourist project in Punta Cana, and John R. Gagain Jr, Executive Director of the Comisión Presidencial sobre los Objetivos del Milenio y el Desarrollo Sostenible (COPDES) (“Presidential Commission on the Millennium Goals and Sustainable Development”).

Previous to the activity a detailed study was presented by the students of Architecture at Columbia University, on the guidelines to give impulse to the development of Miches.

To the presentation of the report on Miches attended, in addition to Gagain, Mrs. Vivian Sundset, Attached Director of COPDES, and authorities of the Secretaría de Estado de Turismo (“State Secreetariat for Tourism”) and the Secretaría de Estado de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (“State Secretariat for the Environment and Natural Resources”). In addition, journalist Arismendy Calderón, in representation of the Comité Pro-Desarrollo Turístico y de Conservación de los Recursos Naturales de Miches (“Pro-Tourist-Development Committee and of Conservation of the Natural Resources of Miches (Conatura-Miches). In the debates, professors of Columbia University took part.

The meeting was summoned by professors Don Melnick and Elliot Sklar, Directors of the Centro de Medio Ambiente, Economía y Sociedad (“Center for Environment, Economy and Society”), and the Centro de Planificación Urbana Sostenible (“Center for Sustainable Urban Planning”), respectively, of Columbia University. Influential real estate investors from New York City participated.

A group of these investors formalized the commitment to visit the Municipality of Miches in the next month of June with the professors of Columbia University and representatives of the Secretaría de Estado de Turismo and the Secretaría de Estado de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales.

Some of them that took a look at the report elaborated by students of that training center were impressed with the natural beauties of this region, specially its beaches, rivers, its natural resources and the impressive lagoons Redonda and Limón.

The interest of this visit is for managing to give impulse to key investments for the development of sustainable tourism, such as a marine, restoration of the lagoons Redonda and Limón (in the community of El Cedro), rehabilitation of the hydric river basins and cascades, as well as complement works.

It was not informed, in the immediate term, about the initial investment in this ambitious project.

The initiative in that zone was applauded by the gentlemen Robert Roskind, president of the Crescent Hotels Group, Martin Kaplan and Peter Resnick, investors, who saluted the role of Columbia University to choose Miches as a pilot project to turn that municipality in a model of creation of jobs, mobilization of the economy, and conservation of its natural resources.

The group of investors expressed, separately, the interest to continue supporting Columbia University, and to collaborate with the Dominican authorities, the Mayorship of Miches, and the community in general, to give impulse to its development, to reduce poverty, and to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

FREDDY MIRANDA
www.freddymiranda.com
Traduced by Orlando Alcantara