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CHAPTER 37
The Dominican-Italian
Chamber of Commerce
By Celso Marranzini
President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce
•
he Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce (CCDI, for its Spanish abbreviation) was founded
on March 30, 1987, by a group of Italian and Dominican entrepreneurs as a non-profit association
in Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The purpose for which the
CCDI was founded is to promote trade, tourism, investment, and economic cooperation between
Italy and the Dominican Republic.
The Chamber also aims to promote the internationalization of Italian companies, promote the market
penetration of “Made in Italy” products locally, and facilitate contacts between companies in the two countries
that operate in the same or related industries or sectors.
As an association of well-established businessmen and businesswomen in the country, the Chamber of
Commerce represents a valid tool for fostering economic and cultural relations between Italy and the Do-
minican Republic by organizing meetings and events aimed at promoting the exchange of business ideas and
projects in collaboration with local and international institutions.
In 1991, the Italian government officially recognized the Italian Chamber of Commerce as such, and since then
it has been an active member of Assocamerestero, the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad.
In 2018, the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce appointed a new board of directors comprising
some of the most important figures in the country’s business community: Chairman Celso Marranzini, own-
er of Grupo Multiquimica; Honorary Chairman, the Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari; First Deputy
Chairman Felipe Vicini, Executive President of INICIA; Second Deputy Chairman Frank Rainieri, CEO of the
famous Grupo Puntacana; Third Deputy Chairman Miguel Barletta, President of Grupo Ambar and Santo Do-
mingo Motors; Secretary Angelo Viro, President of CerArte and Vice President of the Associative Movement
of Italians Abroad (MAIE, for its Spanish and Italian abbreviations); and Executive Director Francesco Alfieri,
who was appointed in July 2019, in addition to nine board members: Juan Antonio Bisonó from the Construc-
tora Bisono group; Giuseppe Bonarelli, Vice President, CEO of Grupo El Catador; Diego Fernández, Director
of the Costa Farms RD group; Salvador Figueroa, Vice President of Institutional Relations of the MARDOM
Group; Roberto Herrera, Country Manager of Interenergy Holdings for the Dominican Republic and General
Manager of the San Pedro de Macorís Electricity Company (CESPM); Jeanne Marion Landais, Manager of
the Internal Management Division of Banco Popular; Manuel Pellerano, Executive Vice President of the re-
nowned newspaper
Diario Libre
; Carlos Ross, President of Ros Seguros y Consultoría; and Massimiliano Wax,
Vice President of the Rizek Cacao Group.
What may appear on first reading as a long list of names and positions in fact represents a significant reflec-
tion of the nation’s human and economic history. These are the men and women who, with initiative, cour-