Dominican Republic

   
Carlos Slim, Gustavo Cisneros and Julio Santo Domingo

A flutter of agitation began Thursday morning when the managerial delegations began to arrive from 13 different countries. At Casa de Campo, personnel from the most beautiful resort in the Caribbean were awaiting the arrival of several minibuses which had to travel for one and a half hours to the meeting point. Many of those in attendance arrived by way of private airplane and landed in the resort's airstrip.

Casa de Campo, which belongs to one of the event's organizers named Jose Pepe Fanjul, is almost a small town with miles and miles of hotel facilities where a hotel with 300 rooms, 1.500 villas and 5.000 employees, is located to attend to all guests.

At 4 p.m. the Managerial Congress was installed at the Romana Country Club. A 10 minute introduction by Jose Pepe Fanjul welcome those in assistance who initiated these self-welcome presentations by mentioning their names, their country's and those of their companies.

At 4:45 p.m. the first part got underway namely: "A current economic model: Adjustments and proposals for sustained development and job creation" held forth by Latin America's richest man - 10.000 million dollars - Carlos Slim and slightly influenced by the Colombian manager Carlos Julio Ardila.

The second panel, "Global Competitiveness: Global enterprises" was held forth by Venezuela's strong man Gustavo Cisneros intervened by Mexico's Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, her countryman Eugenio Clairond y Alejandro Santo Domingo.

At 7 p.m. the session was over and all the managers reconvened at nighttime at Pepe and Alfonso Fanjul's house at the welcome dinner they were invited to.

Friday's session began early and was very agitated. Hipólito Mejía, República Dominicana's President was in attendance. Up until midday four presentations were held forth.

During the second one, Alvaro Noboa intervened as moderator and brought forth several effusive congratulations from the audience on his participation on the theme entitled "Public accounts and foreign trade, transparency and dissemination of its analysis and evaluation".

Álvaro Noboa as moderator during the second session.

The Argentinean manager Alberto Roemmers was one of the assistants who congratulated him as well as many of the young people imbued with the speeches, especially with that of Harvard Professor John Davis who expounded on the following theme "Generational transmission, and expert's vision - practical experiences"..

The dialogue continued during lunch. Felipe Gonzalez, the Spanish ex-president, who was introduced by Julio Mario Sto. Domingo brought forth the applause that comes from admiration when he expounded on Latin America's development with sound ideas.

Friday afternoon the president of Panama, Martin Torrijos was in attendance and was the speaker of honor at 5:45 p.m. On that subject matter Gonzalo Tanoira, Marcelo Oderbrecht and Dionisio Garza interacted finalizing on Friday and it was up to Gustavo Cisneros to host a splendid cocktail - dinner which got underway at 9 p.m.

Saturday the eight and ninth reports were presented from 10h00 until 13:30 Alvaro Saieh who is Chilean was singled out to develop the "Financing Latin America's Development" which was moderated by Stanley Motta, a businessman. At 12h00 Carlos Slim and Gustavo Cisneros closed the conference cycle with the "conclusions and growth proposals including employment and the fight against poverty".

Carlos Salim, Daniel and Älvaro Noboa

That day, the "business meeting between fathers and sons" also featured the presence of a head of state. I am referring to Leonel Hernandez, an ex-president and duly elected president of the Dominican Republic at present who arrive in a yacht at 10:45. Fernandez who will be inducted as president next august was the speaker at the luncheon and was introduced by Alfonso Fanjul.

Ab. Alvaro Noboa with his sons after
one of the sessions.

The rest of the afternoon provided free time for the businessmen. At 21h00 dinner and a party were held at the Yacht Club and on Sunday morning the businessmen in attendance continued to enjoy all those sporting activities that Casa de Campo can offer, that is, polo, golf, and tennis, as well as long walks or simply relax around the pool. At 13:30 the meeting concluded with lunch at the Santa Catalina Island with farewell speeches given by Alfonso Fanjul and Federico Sada.