Portal:Dominican Republic/Selected biography/4

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna born December 26, 1953 is a Dominican politician and expresident of the Dominican Republic. He was born in Santo Domingo but spent his childhood and formative years in New York City, United States. He joined the PLD at its inception in 1973, when the late Juan Bosch left the PRD to create the new party. Fernández was a close pupil of Bosch, and was presented as a vice-president candidate with the latter during the 1994 presidential elections. During his first term in office, Fernández's political agenda was one of economic and judicial reform. He helped enhance Dominican participation in hemispheric forums, such as the Organization of American States and the Miami Summit. The Dominican economy enjoyed an average growth rate of seven percent, the highest in Latin American in that period, along with countries like South Korea. Inflation was stabilized in the low single digits, the lowest in all of Latin America. He served a four-year term as president between 1996 and 2000.

Fernández also began a very personal and visionary plan to run the Dominican Republic. When developers proposed the country's first modern port during his first term, he said that "We can be the Singapore of the Caribbean." In Santo Domingo city, he built highways and tunnels and favored foreign investment, but delayed fundamental social reforms, like education and public health. (more...)