Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader invites Elon Musk to explore investment opportunities

President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has exchanged tweets with billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk. Musk shared a video sourced from Fox News discussing the smart security fence being constructed in the country to keep out turmoil from Haiti.

Musk retweeted “Wall Street Silver”, a right-wing Twitter page that talks about “Finance, economics, news, memes and silver” adding the caption “interesting” in response to the piece by Fox News. The Dominican Republic has built a 12-foot-tall border wall to protect them from “gangs and crime”, it has been dubbed the smart security fence complete with drones, cameras, night vision, and watch towers. Construction on this protective mechanism began over a year ago, the president has claimed that about 100 miles of the border wall have been completed, and the eventual goal is to cover the entire border with Haiti.

An official stated that the physical wall has been doing its job well and has been helping the guards “a lot”. The news piece also emphasized that truckloads of Haitians are being deported every day from the border, a move that has received criticism from around the world with the government’s response being that the actions are necessary to maintain law and order.

In response to Elon Musk’s public intrigue with the wall, and his previously established position with the wall America was building with Mexico under the Trump Administration, President Abinader responded to Musk by writing the following,

“You're right, @elonmusk. Our smart security fence initiative between the Dominican Republic and Haiti is indeed an interesting project that is being implemented as we speak, helping to keep our country secure. However, I think you'll find our technological manufacturing capabilities in the free trade zones even more fascinating. We have a highly skilled workforce and robust infrastructure ready to support advanced manufacturing. I invite you to visit us in the DR whenever you'd like to see it for yourself and explore potential opportunities. #DRisOpenForBusiness”

Hundreds of netizens responded to Abinader’s tweet with support also vying for Elon to visit the country. The response is in good taste, seeing that SpaceX has been infrequently involved with the Caribbean region, and is potentially interested in investing more. SpaceX partnered with the cruise giant Royal Caribbean to adopt internet from Starlink, one of the companies’ initiatives to provide satellite internet across the world.

SpaceX also conducted business with the Bahamas as recently as last month, where they signed a Letter of Agreement with the Ministry of Tourism ensuring investment through various forms including a space exhibition and a launch and landing spectacle with the Falcon 9 that will only be visible from the Bahamas.