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Daily News - 12 January 2000
Eastern expressway to be ready by May
News reports indicate that work is well advanced along the Autovía del Este, the expressway that will connect Santo Domingo with San Pedro de Macorís. Engineer Miguel Logroño told national press that toured the construction that they expect the 56-kilometer expressway will be completed by April. The expressway has a cost of RD$1,200 million (including electric works, green areas, overpasses, etc. The Autovía del Este will link into the Avenida Circunvalación de San Pedro de Macorís, on which construction has also been started. This avenue will permit through traffic from Santo Domingo to La Romana, reducing the time and distance between the capital city and that eastern city and beach destination zone. The Autovía has been built so it can be expanded to six lanes in the future. Contractors say it will have a 20-year life span.
Update on free zone exports
Free zone exports were US$4,300 million in 1999, generating more than US$1,000 million. This is a 10% increase when compared to 1998 exports that totaled US$3,900, says Gabriel Castro, executive director of the National Council of Export Free Zones (CNZFE). Castro pointed out that at the start of the Fernández administration in 1996, free zone exports were US$2,800 million, generating US$500 million.
In 1999, 74 new free zone industries and five industrial parks were approved, requiring an estimated investment of RD$2,464.4 million. Of the investment RD$1,020.8 million will be invested to build industrial parks and RD$1,443.6 million to build free zone industries. The investment is expected to create 11,205 new jobs.
Of the 74 new free zone industries, 66 industries will operate in existing industrial parks, and eight have received special free zone rating. The manufacturing plants are broken down by activity as follows: 20 (27%) textiles; 17 (22.9%) services; 4 (5.4%) cigarettes; 3 (4%) medical products; 2 (2.7%) jewelry; 1 (1.3%) footwear; and 27 (36.4%) other activities.
The CNZFE approved the following new industrial parks: Zona Franca Industrial de Jaibón, RD$25 million investment; Zona Franca Industrial El Puerto, RD$112.3 million investment; Zona Franca Industrial de los Minas, RD$19.7 million investment; Parque Cibernético de Santo Domingo, RD$800 million investment; and Parque Industrial de Las Salinas, RD$63.7 million investment.
Smith-Enron unplugs its Puerto Plata plant
Smith Enron Cogeneration Limited Partnership announced the suspension of the supply of power on 11 January. The communication from the company explains that it does so given the arrears in payment on behalf of the Corporación Dominicana de Electricidad, the state electricity company. The CDE still is the intermediary, and buys power from generators that had standing contracts with the government, that will be eventually distributed by the new private electricity companies. Smith Enron says the CDE owes it more than US$23 million.
New Forestry Director
President Leonel Fernández appointed Rear Admiral Cesar Batista Valdespina as executive director of the newly created Instituto Nacional de Recursos Forestales, the organization that unites government entities related to Dominican forests. At the time of the appointment he was general director of the Forestry Department. Rear Admiral Batista is a naval sciences graduate, with specialty in production management and management of river basins. He has a master in public administration and is a graduate of the War College of the US.
Successful operation of Siamese twins in New Jersey
The Listín Diario reports that seven-month old Siamese twins Jazmin and Nasmil Campusanos Frías were successfully operated on Monday at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Patterson, New Jersey. The operation lasted more than five hours. The Siamese twins were united by the liver. The funding for the operation came from the "Healing the Children" program, and their local connection was the Corazones Unidos Hospital. The babies are interned in the intensive care unit of the hospital but are expected to be sent home in six weeks time. They were born 25 May 1999.
Frontier controls reduce Haitian illegal migration
Tighter controls have impeded the return of thousands of illegal Haitians many of whom voluntarily returned to Haiti to visit friends and family over the Christmas holidays. As a result, coffee growers, rice planters, and construction works have had to start hiring Dominican workers.
Coffee growers in Villa Trina, which had come to depend on the cheap Haitian labor, say they could suffer major losses with the harvest, as 400,000 quintals are remaining to be harvested of an about 1.3 million quintals crop.
Less Haitians are needed in the sugar fields as most government sugar mills are closed as private companies prepare for reopening. Given the privatization of sugar mills, it is expected that when these reopen they will mechanize part of the process and offer better living conditions to attract Dominican labor.
Danilo Diaz, director of Migration told the press, "I am of opinion that we should not import labor, that we have to "Dominicanize" the harvest of sugar cane."
Spokesman for the government party, José Tomás Pérez, secretary of the PLD, favors the increase in rulings regarding foreign laborers. He told the press, when asked about the Haitian harvesters, that only those that have temporary work permits, as happens in other countries, should be allowed to work in the farms. "I believe that the government can not permit the massive influx of Haitians without any documentation, control or registry," he said.
Until recently, the frontier of the DR with Haiti was practically an open door, and Haitian laborers, without any identification papers, wandered through the DR looking for work in the fields or cities, and even the tourist areas.
The president of the Asociación de Constructores y Promotores de Viviendas, José Ramón Martínez Burgos said that as a result of the start of enforcement of migration laws, there is a trend among builders to mechanize heavy construction work, substituting men by machines. He said that Dominicans will continue to be masons and carpenters, but that they have left labor such as building ditches to Haitians. He said that engineers have discovered they can replace six Haitians by purchasing a machine. The machine reduces the construction time and a series of new problems regarding Haitian labor, such as hygiene problems on site and the importing of sicknesses, such as malaria, which is common in Haiti, but had been eradicated in the DR. Contractors are increasingly hiring Dominican workers as is apparent at construction sites.
A local engineer says that the savings when hiring Haitians are not worth the problems. Dominican workers are usually paid RD$150 the day, Haitians RD$125.
Vigilance along the frontier has been stepped up, according to military sources, to discourage Haitian illegal migration. Thousands of Haitians would move on to Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and Santiago cities upon entering on market days, when the frontier was opened for trade. Today, Haitians found circulating on roads outside of frontier market areas without the correct documentation are being deported. Stricter vigilance has been implemented in the past, but military revert to the old lax migration practice and corruption as weeks go by.
Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Latorre told El Siglo that the increasing number of Haitians that attempt to cross illegally, due to problems within Haiti, has brought about the increase in frontier military vigilance.
Minister of Tourism does not recommend malaria prophylaxis
Minister of Tourism Felix Jiménez, in an interview with El Caribe newspaper, says that no tourist, Dominican or foreign, needs to take any kind of prophylaxis to prevent malaria when visiting the Bavaro zone in the East of the DR. In the Bavaro zone, 12 cases of malaria were reported in 1999. About one million tourists visited the Punta Cana tourism area last year, of approximately 2.7 million tourists to the DR. Tourists are recommended to use insect repellent as mosquitos are common in this tropical environment.
Jiménez explained the cases were due to the influx of Haitian laborers employed in the construction of four hotels in the area. When the first cases were known, the Ministry of Public Health took special measures to eliminate any possible future cases, he said.
Furthermore, following a meeting of the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Tourism and the Hotel Association, the construction of the hotels was suspended until all measures were in place to eliminate any possible future cases.
The president of the Asociación de Constructores y Promotores de Viviendas, José Ramón Martínez Burgos said that contractors are increasingly mechanizing the building of ditches to depend less on Haitian labor. He pointed out that 400 Haitian workers in the Bavaro-Punta Cana area were replaced by machines.
Influenza epidemic affects Europe and US
A major influenza epidemic is affecting hundreds of thousands of persons in Europe and the US. News reports say there could be thousands of deaths in Europe. In the UK it is said to be the worse influenza epidemic in 10 years. In the UK, hospitals reported there were 200,000 persons hospitalized. In Italy, the influenza virus has affected over a million persons, with 250,000 new cases reported per week. In France, press reports say a million persons have caught the virus.
The influenza outbreak has also taken a hold of the US Eastern Seaboard, where 99% of the cases are said to be of Type A, Sydney virus.
This news is important for the DR because given the large number of people that travel to the DR from Europe and the US, it is only a matter of time before the virus comes South and affects those in the DR. Last year, the influenza virus affected thousands in the DR.
The influenza virus primarily affects the weak and the elderly.
Travel agents protest AA commission reduction
The Asociación Dominicana de Agentes de Viajes (ADAVIT), the Sociedad de Agencias de Viajes Autorizadas (SAVIA) and the Asociación Dominicana de Tour Operadores (ADOTUR) requested the intervention of the Civil Aviation Board to annul the announced American Airlines reduction in travel agent commissions on prepaid tickets from 10 to 6%. The new commission is due to be effective as of 15 January on tickets sold in the Caribbean, including Bermudas and Bahamas, but excluding Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands where the commission is 5% to a maximum limit.
The travel agents say that CAB Resolution 96 of 1 June 1998, based on Law 505, regulates the commission on tickets sold in the DR.
American Airlines tickets make up about 70% of all airline tickets sold by travel agencies in the DR.
Whereabouts of Sammy Sosa containers
Emidgio Sosa, director of the Plan Social de la Presidencia clarified yesterday that the 22 containers with items gathered through efforts of Chicago Cubs player Sammy Sosa and that were shipped from Miami, Florida to the DR as humanitarian aid (clothing, food and wood) for victims of Hurricane Georges were consigned to the Plan Social de la Presidencia and not to the Sammy Sosa Foundation, as erroneously has been published. El Siglo newspaper said that of the 22 containers, 17 were received by the Plan Social 11 months after they arrived. El Siglo newspaper explains that the containers arrived to port in October 1998, but it was not until August 1999 that the Plan Social was notified that the containers were in port. This is attributed to negligence by the shipping line. The news story says the Chamber of Accounts is investigating who received the first five containers that were dispatched prior to August 1999.
The 22 containers have caused a controversy between two representatives of the Sammy Sosa Foundation, Domingo Dauhajre, based in Santo Domingo, and Arturo Sandoval, based in Miami, who disputed the management of the containers. The news story says that neither of the two was able to retrieve the containers because they were consigned to the Plan Social de la Presidencia. Once they were retrieved, the Plan Social handed them over to the Sammy Sosa Foundation. Given the dispute between Sandoval and Dauhajre, Sammy Sosa notified the Plan Social that his representative in Santo Domingo is Domingo Dauhajre.
Videos to cost more
The Asociación Dominicana de Tiendas de Video that groups movie rental businesses in the DR announced that as of 10 January the going rate for renting a VHS video is RD$35, DVDs are RD$45 and video games RD$45. The rates are effective at Clockwork Movies, Home Movies, Mr. Movies, Omar Video Club, Videorama, Video Vision, Diamond Video, Movie Max, Mundo Video, Video Factory, Buena Visión Video. For more information, contact the association of video stores at Tel. 809 472-4445.
Theater season continues
The drama season of the National Theater reopens this weekend with the 14-16 January showing of "Chicken Cordon Blue" at the Sala Ravelo of the National Theater. "Chicken Cordon Blue" stars Olga Bucarelli, Basilio Nova, Wallis Uribe and Juan Carlos Campos. Subsequent dates to this drama-comedy by Frank Disla are 19-23 January , 26-30 January and 2-6 February.
Baseball playoffs
Playoffs (round robin) standings as of Tuesday, 11 January 2000
Aguilas 6-3 (.667)
Estrellas 5-4 (.556) ­1 game
Leones 4-5 (.444) ­2 games
Tigres 3-6 (.333) ­3 games

No games programmed for today. The round robin continues tomorrow.
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