Autistic children will soon be able to receive holistic innovative early intervention treatments at the Ponce Autism Center, set to open in October 2008, making the city of Ponce a vital addition to Puerto Rico’s health system in a region also known as Porta Caribe.  

Ponce Grand Prix, South Puerto Rico’s premiere athletic competition, is shaping up to be one of the world’s most contested sporting events, setting the stage for the 2008 Olympics in China. Some of the world’s top track and field athletes, including Olympic gold medals winners and world champions, have already confirmed their participation in this second annual sports spectacular, May 17 in Ponce’s Francisco “Paquito” Montaner Stadium, one of Porta Caribe’s premiere sporting facilities. 

The city of Ponce, on the South Coast of Puerto Rico (also known as Porta Caribe) hosts a recycling event April 19, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in La Guancha Boardwalk to address the problem of electronic waste – one of the fast growing kinds of garbage. Puerto Rico Solid Waste Disposal Authority and various entities from the private sector are sponsoring the event in Ponce and five other Puerto Rico cities. 

Doing Business in Puerto Rico just got easier with the creation of the Technical Evaluation Office and its new online permitting system.  Building and business permit request can be filed online and applicants can check the status of their request through the Internet, reducing the construction permit process to between six months and a year. This office will certainly make it easier to take advantage of Ponce and South Puerto Rico’s (Porta Caribe) economic development efforts. 

The strong technological infrastructure of cities like Ponce has made Puerto Rico one of the world’s premiere locations for technology. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008 ranked Puerto Rico second in Latin America, confirming that Ponce and other areas of South Puerto Rico (Porta Caribe) are excellent places to start or grow a business.