| An artificial lake, freshly sown grass strips … An 18 hole golf course is being built in the southeast of the Dominican Republic, in Cap Cana, a new town near La Romana, very close to a national park and the barrier reef. The golf course geared at rich tourists who come and relax on this Caribbean island is part of a huge resort that spreads for dozens of miles on a sandy coastal beach. Tourism generates 55% of the country's resources. Over the past few years, it has supplanted traditional sugar, banana and tobacco production which now only represents 11% of wealth. The Dominican Republic used to export a lot of these products but it now imports most of its foodstuffs and is showing a negative balance of 3.5 billion dollars on its exchange sheet that further increases the country's external debt. Less than 10% of the 9 million inhabitants share 40% of the country's revenue and over a quarter of the Dominican Republic's population lives below the poverty line. |