Wednesday, March 4

Day 5

Day five was suuuper loooong! It started with yet another fabulous breakfast. At 9am we had a meeting in the hotel with FIDE, the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports. They help promote investment within Honduras. They had a presentation and short movie that was really interesting about the status of the economy, the culture, and the textile industry in Honduras. Then we met with CCIC, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortes specifically with Raul Reina Cleaves and Jouseff Mitri. They promote growth withing San Pedro Sula and the surrounding areas. This meeting was also very informative. One of them had even helped with the negotiations for CAFTA-DR. Next, we had lunch and toured the Hanes bra facility. This tour was extremely organized and efficient most likely because of the amount of tours they do world wide. We met with Roberto Mayr as well as many other managers of the different facilities. By the end of this tour we were all exhausted, but had one more meeting with the Honduran Maquiladora Association. We arrived and met with many of the directors there. They had much more insight into what the textile industry needs to do in order to survive in the Americas. We had a small reception with them and I think I might have a internship for the summer! By the time we arrived back at the hotel we were all exhausted! We had dinner and went to bed and got ready for Day 6.