First, the Multi-Fibre Agreement of international textile quotas expired at the beginning of the year, exposing the industry to the full force of cheaper labour competition from Asian countries such as China.
Second, the industry continued to suffer a long-running secular trend. To maintain the business of US fashion manufacturers,
But they turn out to be far more successful even than the Americans. The two US major leagues, the National League and the American League, elect a “most valuable player” at the end of each season. Last year, Albert Pujols of the St Louis Cardinals won the title for
“Confidence in the daily operations of the bank survived because of the way the business elite has covered the deficit with their own resources,” President Fernández told the FT.
Even so Banco del Progreso’s difficulties have been an uncomfortable reminder of the crisis in 2003 at Baninter, then the country’s
“It’s very important for me,” she says. “I pay for the kids, I pay for the telephone and the light and the water and the cellphone and collective buses and food with it. Everything. It pays for us completely.”
Julio does not enjoy living in the US, she says, and
Gaetan Bucher, a Swiss-Dominican private banker developing the project, is in no doubt about what he is taking on. “Talk about taking on a challenge,” he says. He plans to house a complex built at a cost of more than $600m on a 17 sq km greenfield site at
Back then, his main claim to fame had been his role as right-hand man to a former Marxist president, Juan Bosch. In the early 1970s he had helped Mr Bosch form the left-wing pro-Cuban Dominican Liberation Party, the principal aim of which was to campaign against US influence in