Marcelo says the Dominican Republic has put forward “very specific” ideas of “partnership with Portugal”.

Head of State Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said at the end of his official visit to the Dominican Republic that the Dominican authorities had put forward “already very concrete” ideas and even “some unexpected proposals” for “partnership with Portugal.”

“In the Dominican Republic today we found a president and a government – ​​and two-thirds of the government was there, and he spoke governor after governor, file by file – who did their job, knew in detail what they wanted from Portugal. “, he said. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the end of a one-day official visit on Thursday, the first visit by a Portuguese head of state to this Caribbean country.

The President of the Republic, speaking at a hotel in Santo Domingo to Portuguese expatriates and representatives of companies with a presence in the Dominican Republic, added: “I am very sorry that I could not tell you how it was because they were banzos or banzados, like speak in Miño, where my roots are, with the degree of detail and even the sophistication of some of the unexpected proposals that came up, almost implausibly, such was the interest of the Dominican Republic in partnership with Portugal.”

“I think expectations have been greatly exceeded,” said the Portuguese head of state, who during this visit invited his colleague Luis Abinader to visit Portugal this year during the web summit.

Speaking to reporters, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza said that the Dominican economy “is the second fastest growing in all of Latin America and the Caribbean” and was impressed by the proposals for sectoral cooperation put forward in bilateral talks during this visit.

The Head of State gave several examples of “very specific ideas” from the Dominican authorities: “How about we in ports go further in the communication between Caucedo and Sines? How about doing a joint green hydrogen project? How about this, we need a lot of wind power, we have wind and the Portuguese are good at it.”

“And they gave a number of very specific directions, very specific projects that they were thinking about, doing their homework very well,” he backed up, concluding, “So it was a very helpful, very quick visit.”

In his opinion, the Dominicans “like the idea of ​​Portugal playing a special role and finding solutions in favor of the Portuguese position in order to balance” with other countries, for “diversification”.

“It’s very promising, but it’s up to you to decide, you are in the right place at the right time,” he said, adding: “If we don’t fill this place, another one will come right behind, behind a tree, waiting to enter.”

This meeting at a hotel in Santo Domingo was attended by representatives of Altice and Mota-Engil, as well as the Director General of the World Organization for Migration (IOM), Antonio Vitorino.

King Felipe VI of Spain, who was in the same hotel, came out to greet Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

In front of the President of the Republic, Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho called the visit “historic” and “the start of another era in the always friendly, old relations” 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 those opportunities that exist for economic relations.”

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made this official visit to the Dominican Republic before participating in the 28th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Santo Domingo, together with Prime Minister António Costa.

At the Dominican National Congress, the President of the Republic was applauded when he promised that Portugal “will 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.”