Domes International, Inc., Part 2

Domes International aspires to sell factories to Afghanistan, Africa, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana and other third world countries. The cost of manufacturing and exporting in third world countries is significantly lower than manufacturing in the United States and exporting to the third world.

On May 12, 2005, I spoke with Stephen L. Pope, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Director of Domes International, Inc. He remarked that making arrangements with disaster-torn countries takes an extremely long period of time. The process of making arrangements with post-war countries and countries that have endured natural disasters can be a “bureaucratic nightmare.”

There are many difficulties in selling or donating fiberglass domes to the third world for disaster relief. Even though construction costs and material costs are pared down for third world countries, the fiberglass domes can still be too costly. For example, fiberglass resin is petroleum based. It is the strongest material that Domes International can use. However, other materials are less expensive. Although International Domes is able to make a lower cost version of its domes, the bureaucracies of non-governmental organizations, governments and political organizations tend to make agreements difficult. Another difficulty in exporting domes is that countries in war zones or earthquake hit areas function in an emergency operation mode. So, even when the design costs are changed to the minimum expense, the domes are still too costly for some relief efforts to take place.

The problem in getting a project implemented is that when governments of third world countries get involved with relief funds, all parties require a fee. The billions of dollars given to charities and governments is used up as the money trickles down. Pope says that there is an unfortunate abundance of corruption. Only some money gets to the project after being filtered down through layers of management or contractors.

For more information on Domes International, Inc.:

http://www.domesintl.com/index.htm