DR1 Daily News - Thursday, 1 September 2016

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DR1 takes a vacation day
President Medina inaugurates resort in Punta Cana
Montas backs National Business Council
Montas meets with manufacturers
New director says tax carnival is over
45,160 road assists in July-August 2016
Water water! Not in East Santo Domingo
Doctors drop strike call and go back to table
First meeting Interior & Police and Attorney General
Was there an increase in legislator wages?
David Collado announces market improvements
Trade with China worth US$1.8 billion
Dajabon traders celebrate ban lift
Altice to invest RD$250 million in Cibao
HanesBrands inaugurates unique school
Looking for relatives of Katherine Alexandra Galanton
Venezuela rejects to extradite Jose Luis Santoro
Pedro Martinez?s Dominican dream team
Contemporary Dance Festival at Palacio de Bellas Artes


DR1 takes a vacation day
DR1 Daily News is taking the day off on Friday, 2 September 2016. Headline news will be compiled for the Monday, 5 September issue. While the news will not be updated on Friday, the DR1 Forums continue to be updated 24/7.

See http://dr1.com/forums/forum.php


President Medina inaugurates resort in Punta Cana
President Danilo Medina was in Uvero Alto in northern part of the Punta Cana area on Wednesday 31 August 2016 for the formal opening of the Excellence El Carmen resort, a US$100 million foreign investment. The luxury adults-only resort, which has 492 suites was blessed by the bishop of La Altagracia, Monsignor Nicanor Pe?a Rodr?guez.

Speaking at the event, Antonio Montaner, representing the hotel investor, Grupo Excellence praised President Danilo Medina?s government. ?Thank you for welcoming us and making the Dominican Republic our home,? he said.

This is the second Excellence Group Luxury Hotels & Resorts hotel in the Uvero Alto area. The first is the Excellence Punta Cana.

At the inaugural event, Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia said another five to nine hotels would open before the end of the year. He said that 70,030 hotel rooms are currently in operation and another 5,213 were under construction.

https://presidencia.gob.do/noticias...inauguracion-hotel-excellence-el-carmen-video


Montas backs National Business Council
The new Minister of Industry and Commerce, Juan Temistocles Montas visited the National Council of Business (Conep) on Wednesday 31 August 2016. Following the meeting, he told Diario Libre that the topics discussed included the Electricity Pact, transport of passengers and cargo, and the Labor Code.

Montas met with the Conep president Rafael Blanco Canto and other board members.

Montas told Diario Libre that he backs the changes proposed by Conep, acknowledging that they were aimed at developing the country?s business activity.

He expressed concern at the increasing number of businesses operating outside of the tax structure, social security and pension funds, the so-called informal sector. He also addressed the issues of the micro, small and medium-sized businesses and the issue of logistics and transport.

Montas said he saw his role as a facilitator and promoter for doing business in the Dominican Republic.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Conep president Rafael Blanco Canto remarked: ?It is no secret that the most important issue that we have on the table is the Electricity Pact, which we want to sign and which we have spent a year and a half preparing, working intensively because it is a complex issue that directly affects business sector competitiveness. Freight transportation also affects competitiveness. Remember that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has to take care of issues affecting small business.?


Montas meets with manufacturers
Speaking on Tuesday, 30 August 2016, Minister of Industry and Commerce Temistocles Montas stated the time has come for the authorities to take on the land cargo transport monopoly, a long-standing request from the business groups.

While this is against the Constitution, for decades the government has allowed Fenatrado, the truckers? union to control cargo headed to and from Dominican ports.

On Tuesday, Montas met with the board of directors of the Dominican Republic Industries Association (AIRD). ProIndustria director Alexandra Izquierdo was also present.

During the meeting he said the goals and strategies for sustainable growth, increasing exports and creating formal jobs in the industrial sector were discussed, in addition to contraband and forgery.

After the meeting, AIRD president Campos De Moya told the media that the AIRD believes that a strong, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector requires joint work between public and private sectors, with business owners who are willing to invest capital in their industries and able to push ahead constant innovation, and who are concerned with improving the quality and numbers of formal jobs.

The AIRD presented its Strategic Plan to the new Minister of Industry and Commerce.


New director says tax carnival is over
The newly appointed general director of the Tax Agency, engineer Magin Diaz was the guest speaker during the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon event on Wednesday, 31 August 2016. He sent the message that changes are afoot to increase tax collections.

During the talk he outlined the main problems that erode the base of the tax system, describing them as inequitable, inefficient and inadequate. Diaz highlighted the many practices he says distort business taxation, the loopholes in the system and the many tax exemptions.

He used the occasion of the presentation to explain his plans for institutional and technical strengthening of the DGII in cooperation with international organizations.

In his opinion, tax evasion has become a favorite sport for many Dominicans.

Acknowledging that the country?s tax regime is completely distorted, Diaz gave the example of a recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ? which showed that the value added tax (ITBIS) productivity is one of the lowest in the world and that only 14% of formal workers pay income tax.

He noted that the low wages prevalent in the country limited individual taxpaying capacity, pointing out that 1.5 million out of 1.7 million individuals in the formal job sector do not pay taxes.

He observed that property taxes only collects 0.06% of GDP and that tax exemptions on fuel represented 60% of the taxes collected for this item.

Diaz spoke of the distortions in the large umbrella of tax exemptions, of which he says there are 94. He says this results in a large number of foreign companies making money without paying taxes. He says that as a result, many of these companies end up paying taxes in their countries of origin. ?That way, the country ends up ceding its tax base to rich countries such as the United States or Spain, he said.

He criticized the NCF system for allowing company owners to deduct personal consumption as a business expense to a point where they order pizza delivery they ask for a NCF receipt so they can deduct it as a company expense.

The new tax office head also criticized the irritating privileges of tax exemptions on vehicles that resulted in the import in 2010-2016 of 32 Ferraris, 18 sports Mercedes Benz, 5 Rolls Royce, 5 Porsche, 4 Lamborghini, 4 Bentley, 1 Mercedes Benz Maybach, 1 Aston Martin and 2 armored Lexus. In the Dominican Republic, deputies and senators receive an unlimited vehicle tax exemption every two years.

He also criticized the Chinese traders on Av. Duarte and surrounding areas, who he said refuse to install fiscal solutions. ?The Chinese on Duarte avenues and surrounding areas operate 100% in cash and do not pay ITBIS or income tax. ?The carnival is over, either they pay, or they are shut down, it is as simple as that,? said Diaz.

Diaz says in his first eight weeks in post he has received visits from more than 35 business associations.
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=495743


45,160 road assists in July-August 2016
During the summer months of July and August, the Ministry of Public Works Road patrols assisted 45,160 vehicles on the country?s main highways and roads.

The Public Works Ministry?s Military and Police Commission spokesman Jacobo Mateo Moquete said that the categories of the roadside assistance services provided were: 21,992 mechanical failures (48.7%), 15,695 flat tires (34.7%), 4,940 vehicles that ran out of fuel (11%) and 2,166 crash vehicle assistance (4.8%).

Another 367 people (1%) were assisted by Ministry of Public Works ambulances.

The Ministry of Public Works offers free road assistance and operates 24/7 on the main roadways all year round.

http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/201...as-asistio-mas-mil-conductores-dos-meses.html


Water water! Not in Santo Domingo East
The Santo Domingo Water and Sewage Corporation (CAASD) announced yesterday afternoon that today and tomorrow (1 and 2 September) they will close the Salinity Barrier System ? which is the Eastern Aqueduct to complete the installation of the new tanks erected in San Isidro.

They will also be adding two 42-inch drainage valves to the two regulating tanks which store 15,000,000 gallons of water that are distributed to the municipality of East Santo Domingo.

A press release from the CAASD explains that the work schedule will last for 48 hours and that some 40 sectors of East Santo Domingo will not have water.

CAASD director Alejandro Montas told reporters from El Nacional newspaper that he has increased the number of units of tank trucks which will be supplying water for home use and cisterns.


Doctors drop strike call and go back to table
The Dominican Medical Association (CMD) together with the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS) doctors? association and the National Association of Nurses have revoked the strike called for all of the hospitals in the east of the Dominican Republic and agreed to resume talks with the government on Thursday, 1 September 2016.

The announcement was made during a press conference on Wednesday morning, 31 August 2016 held by the CMD president Waldo Ariel Suero, nurses? union leader Francisco Peguero and IDSS doctors? association president Carlos Roa.

They said that late Tuesday night, Fr. Jesus Castro Marte, who acted as a mediator in the talk process, convinced them to resume talks.

The talking points include a demand for 5% of GDP to be assigned to the health sector, a salary increase (60%), the appointment of more medical and health professionals, the completion of 56 hospitals now being remodeled and the payment of some RD$30 million pesos that they say the government owes medical residents.

The doctors and nurses said that they took the decision because they believed that dialogue was the only way to resolve the issues.


First meeting between Interior & Police and Attorney General
New Minister of Interior and Police, Carlos Amarante Baret reported on Wednesday, 31 August 2016 that he met with new Attorney General Jean-Alain Rodriguez, as part of a series of meetings with the government agencies responsible for public safety in the country. The aim of these meetings is to coordinate the implementation of the National Public Safety Plan announced by President Danilo Medina in his second inaugural address. The meeting was held in the ministry offices on Av. Mexico in Santo Domingo.

A press communiqu? from the Ministry of Interior and Police said that the purpose of the meeting was to coordinate activities between the ministry, the Attorney General Office, the National Police, the Migration Agency and the other agencies involved in public safety. The minister has already met with the director general of Migration and Major General Nelson Peguero Paredes of the Police.


Was there an increase in legislator wages?
The president of the Chamber of Deputies Lucia Medina has denied the reported increase in wages for legislators in August paychecks.

As reported in Acento, the legislators have approved wage increases of RD$70,000 for deputies and RD$125,000 for senators. This means deputies wages went up from RD$175,000 to RD$300,000 and senators wages went from RD$250,000 to RD$320,000 per month. This does not include other major perks.

Medina, who is President Danilo Medina?s sister, said that while she is president of the Chamber of Deputies the wage increases would not go into effect. Medina said that during the year she will preside at the Chamber of Deputies there could not be any wage increases because Article 140 of the Constitution establishes that the legislators cannot make laws for their own benefit. She said the increase would have had to happen in the previous legislature, and it did not go into effect.

In a recent meeting with Minister of Industry and Commerce,
Rafael Blanco Canto criticized the reported wage increase for the legislators and said that several months earlier they approved a budgetary allocation of RD$600 million to establish their own pension fund.

Blanco criticized the fund that was created while the rest of the population is obliged to pay into the Dominican Social Security System established by law.

He also criticized the law that allows legislators to import vehicles with no cap on the price. ?The largest number of luxury vehicles you see in circulation have entered with tax exemptions granted to the legislators,? said Blanco.

?Nobody can legislate for their own advantage,? said Blanco, indicating that the issue should be ?constitutionally? resolved. He did not clarify whether the matter would be taken to the Constitutional Court but he said the business sector expects to reach agreements where some type of control is established.

He said it was regrettable that Congress should have a budget that is higher than the Judicial Branch. ?That does not happen anywhere else in the world, and cannot continue to happen,? he said when meeting with Minister of Industry and Commerce, Temistocles Montas.

Meanwhile, in the Senate the wage increases are apparently a reality. Ruling PLD party spokesman Ruben Dario Cruz argued that the increase in the paycheck is based on Law 105-13 that calls for indexing wages every two years according to inflation. He confirmed the increases were around RD$70,000 bringing senator monthly wages to RD$320,000, up from RD$250,000.

http://acento.com.do/2016/economia/...se-aumenten-sueldos-legislen-propio-provecho/
http://hoy.com.do/lucia-medina-niega-aumento-de-sueldo-para-diputados/
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...mento-de-salario-a-los-legisladores-FA4828502


David Collado announces market improvements
During a visit to the market in the Santo Domingo neighborhood of Honduras on Wednesday 31 August 2016, Mayor David Collado said that improvement works would begin next week. He added that municipal police would be assigned to guarantee security at the market. The new mayor also promised to coordinate with the Metropolitan Transport Authority to ensure that parking spaces at the market could be only used by market users.


Trade with China worth US$1.8 billion
The new permanent representative of the Trade Development Office of the People?s Republic of China, Fu Xinrong says that trade between the two countries amounts to US$1.8 billion.

Xinrong was speaking during a courtesy visit to Minister for Regional Integration Policy Miguel Mejia at the Salon Los Trinitarios of the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo.

Mejia said he hopes that the new representative will strengthen the commercial, cultural and diplomatic ties between both nations because of her youth, energy and experience.

The representative issued an invitation for Mejia and four other Dominican government officials to visit China at the end of October.

The assistant representative of the Trade Office of the People?s Republic of China, Ma Zengjie was also present at the meeting.

http://elnacional.com.do/intercambi...ica-popular-china-y-rd-es-de-1800-mm-dolares/


Dajabon traders celebrate ban lift
Traders in the northwestern province of Dajabon on the border with Haiti have welcomed the announcement by the Haitian government that there is no ban on the import of 23 products of Dominican origin and/or manufacture by land.

Reporters from Diario Libre talked to a number of traders who said that the ban had led to a 40% fall in sales on the weekly bi?national market day in Dajabon.

The announcement was made by the acting President of Haiti, Jocelerme Privert after a meeting with Minister of Foreign Relations Miguel Vargas Maldonado in Port-au-Prince earlier this week.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...umento-el-salario-a-los-diputados-y-diputadas


Altice to invest RD$250 million in Cibao
The Altice Group, which operates both Orange and Tricom, reported on Wednesday, 31 August 2016 that the company would be investing some RD$250 million this year to expand its services in the Cibao region, according to a communiqu? sent to the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel).

The announcement was made by Altice Group executive director Martin Roos.


HanesBrands inaugurates unique school
HanesBrands inaugurated the first technical school for the processes of whitening and dyeing textiles in the Dominican Republic. With this training facility, Hanes Brands seeks to certify their factory employees, through external entities that validate the experience and the knowledge acquired by their workers.

The company says that the program is backed by the Catalunya Polytechnical University (UPC) Institute of Textile Innovation (Intertex) and approved by the Dominican Republic?s Technical Professional Training Institute (INFOTEP).

As well as opening the first training center of its kind in the country, the company says that HanesBrands is strengthening the quality and sustainability of its operation in the Dominican Republic.

The students are required to complete 212 hours of workshops and training. The training includes fiber analysis, types of machinery, and analysis of dyeing processes, toxicity and the treatment of wastewater for environmental sustainability.

This new school builds on the technical education programs in place since 2014. A first class will graduate this month.

HanesBrands employs 9,000 people in the four factories they operate in the country. As reported, Hanes Brands accounts for 30% of total textile exports.


Looking for relatives of Katherine Alexandra Galanton
Venezuelan Katherine Alexandra Galanton Lopez fell into a coma after a major car crash on her way back to Santo Domingo after the Romeo Santos concert in Punta Cana on Saturday, 27 August 2016. She was taken to the Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital in Santo Domingo.

The accident occurred near Playa Caribe.

She was traveling with her boyfriend, Rai Antonio Alvarez, who died in the accident.

Hospital authorities are trying to trace the young woman?s relatives.


Venezuela rejects to extradite Jose Luis Santoro
Venezuela?s Superior Justice Tribunal has rejected the extradition request made by the Dominican judiciary for Jose Luis Santoro, president of the collapsed Peravia Bank in the Dominican Republic. Santoro is accused of fraud of more than US$29 million.

El Universal in Venezuela says the Superior Justice Tribunal announced Santoro would be tried in Venezuela for the charges made in the Dominican Republic.

As reported, the Venezuelan Constitution Art. 69 prohibits putting Venezuelans at the disposition of foreign courts. Instead, it ordered the public Ministry in Venezuela to request from the Dominican Republic evidence for the clarification of the case.

http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/201...a-rechaza-extradicion-santoro-dominicana.html


Pedro Martinez?s Dominican dream team
MLB and ESPN commentator and analyst Pedro Martinez, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, gave out the names of Dominican team members he would like to see on the roster of the Dominican team to the World Baseball Classic in 2017. The Dominican Republic won the championship in 2013.

According to Pedro Martinez, the Dominican dream team should be made up of:

Infielders Robinson Cano, Adrian Beltre, Manny Machado, Erick Aybar, Edwin Encarnacion, Albert Pujols, Jean Segura and Jos? Ramirez.

The outfielders should include Nelson Cruz, Marcell Ozuna, Starling Marte, Jos? Bautista and Gregory Polanco.

In the catcher position, Wellington Castillo and Gary Sanchez are mentioned. Martinez noted that Gary Sanchez was voted Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks as a rookie, something that had not happened in nearly 20 years.

Starting pitchers: Johnny Cueto, Bartolo Colon, Francisco Liriano, Carlos Martinez, Jordano Ventura, Danny Salazar. Relievers: Kelvin Herrera, Fernando Rodney, Dellin Betances, Jeurys Familia, Pedro Strop, Fernando Abad and Santiago Casilla.

In the Dominican Republic, Pedro Martinez belongs to the Tigres Del Licey and he took part in the World Baseball Classic in 2009.

http://m.mariners.mlb.com/sea/video...ames-his-dominican-team-roster-before-classic


Contemporary Dance Festival at Palacio de Bellas Artes
The 12th International Contemporary Dance Festival (Edanco 2016) will take place from 27 September to 9 October 2016 at the Maximo Aviles Blonda hall of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Santo Domingo.

Edmundo Poy, founder and producer of Edanco highlighted the importance of the festival as a platform for showcasing Dominican contemporary dance talent and for nourishing the dancers with the presence of outstanding international dance companies.
The 13 days of performances include companies from 10 guest countries.

Grupo Juvenil de la Escuela Nacional de Danza, Compania Nacional de Danza Contempor?nea and Ballet Nacional Dominicano are representing the Dominican Republic.

The cost is RD$200 per person, with the exception of the events singled out as benefits for the Escuela Nacional de Danza and the Fundacion Mal de Parkinson.


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http://www.dr1.com/calendar


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