In his first visit to America since taking office seven months ago, the president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, appealed yesterday to New York-Dominican leaders to “strengthen the ties” to their home country to help promote development.

Mr. Fernandez’s comments resonated because Dominicans in New York voted overwhelming for him in the last presidential election. It was the first election in which Dominicans in New York were permitted to vote from abroad.

With more than 70% of New York Dominicans voting for him, Mr. Fernandez is now not only appealing to them to invest in their nation of 8.4 million, but is also courting a population that has become a potent voting bloc.

Crucial to national development in the struggling country is the question of “how to incorporate the Dominican diaspora into our development,” Mr. Fernandez said at a press conference at City College yesterday. The challenge, he said is to explore means beyond the $1 billion a year that Dominicans living in North America send home in remittances.

That was the purpose of the two-year study led by a Santo Domingo-based foundation headed by Mr. Fernandez and CUNY’s Dominican Studies Institute, which resulted in a report released yesterday, “Building Strategic Partnerships for Development: Dominican Republic – New York State.”

Of the more than 1 million Dominicans living in America, more than half live in New York. The city’s largest immigrant group, they are rapidly overtaking Puerto Ricans as the largest Latino bloc.

To the audience of Dominican-American leaders and concerned community members filling City College’s Great Hall to hear the results of the study, no introduction was needed.

Mr. Fernandez, 50, grew up in New York from age 7, returning to his native Dominican Republic to attend university, and going on to a career there in academia and law before entering politics. His face still smiles from election posters dotting Washington Heights, half a year after his victory.

Just past 100 days into his term, Mr. Fernandez, who was also president from 1996 to 2000, is already taking credit for the reversal of four years of economic crisis, highlighting an improved exchange rate and “zero inflation” for November.

The Dominican peso, which plunged by 65% from February 2003 to February 2004, devastating Dominicans’ buying power, is making strong gains, encouraging Dominicans and investors alike.

“You can say the economy is certainly coming out of crisis,” Geoffrey Gottlieb, an analyst with the brokerage firm Goldman Sachs, told the Associated Press recently. “It’s exceeded expectations.”

Still, experts are warning the financial system is still extremely vulnerable and are concerned that corruption in Mr. Fernandez’s first term might stain his administration.

Mr. Fernandez acknowledged yesterday there is a long way to go, blaming the country’s still-dire economic situation for the perilous voyages of large numbers of undocumented immigrants along straits separating the island from Puerto Rico. At least eight people died Friday when one boat with 93 Dominicans capsized, and more than 8,000 boats have been intercepted so far this year.

Those voyages “are an expression of the precarious economic and social situation that we have in the Dominican Republic,” the president said, adding, “I understand that as we emerge from the crisis, that the Dominican economy will be able to advance, the illegal trips are going to disappear.”

Mr. Fernandez said his country also needed to do more to help the thousands of criminal aliens forcibly repatriated each year to the Dominican Republic. While he said it was not right to blame them entirely for escalating crime problems, he blamed them as one source.

The fight against crime will also get a boost, he said, from a collaboration, to be launched in January, between police officials from New York, New Jersey, and Bogota, Colombia, as part of a “zero tolerance” plan that would promote “democratic security.”

Mr. Fernandez arrived Friday in New York and is participating in various events, from a dinner with bodega owners Friday to a session at New York University tomorrow with the World Bank president, James Wolfensohn.