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Daily News - 1 February 2001
Collecting past due customs duties
The Customs Department seeks to collect arrears in duties due from importers for over RD$1,000 million. The Fernandez government, according to Customs director Vicente Sanchez Baret, granted importers credit and as a result the new authorities found considerable outstanding debt in the books. Much of the debt has been sent to legal procedures for its collection. Sanchez Baret says that Ivan de Jesus Garcia, president of the Federacion de Comerciantes, owes RD$17 million. Garcia made headlines recently when he urged merchant association members to not pay the 1.5% advance payment on sales instituted this January by the Mejia administration.
US$200 million for social programs
The Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Rafael Calderon spoke of the government taking out a US$200 million loan with the Interamerican Development Bank for social programs to be announced next week. The DR1 Daily News had reported the government would receive US$100 million. Clarifying, Calderon explained that US$100 million would be received in the first four to five months of the program. The money would permit the government to expand its social compensation program and strengthen international reserves.
"We are negotiating with the IDB a project to expand the social policy of the government with a loan of US$200 million, of quick disbursement, that is within the next four or five months at the latest, if the IDB loan is approved, half of the money will be available," he said.
Business sector spokesmen Ignacio Mendez and Antonio Espin said that they would only back the financing if the money was used for a national development plan and for productive purposes, not for short term solutions.
Interestingly, on the same day, Pedro Franco Badia, who is administrative secretary of the Presidency, said on Hoy Mismo Color Vision television show that an international loan is not necessary to cover the government social programs. He said that the money for the social programs would be generated by the new taxes.
PLD government employees do not get Christmas bonus
Vice President Jaime David Fernandez urged that the government pay the portion of the Christmas salary that is pending for government employees that were fired due to the change of government. The Christmas bonuses are pending for the Vice President himself and hundreds of others that lost their jobs in the August 2000 change of government. By law they are due the part of the extra salary corresponding to the first seven and a half months of the year.
Social institutions need their budgetary allotments
Hoy newspaper urged that the government disburse immediately the December and January National Budget allotments to several social institutions. The newspaper says that its sources indicate that the Asociacion Dominicana de Rehabilitacion, Instituto Dominicano de Cardiologia, Instituto del Cancer, Instituto Dermatologico, Patronato de Ciegos (help for the blind) and Instituto de Diabetes have not received their December and January allotments. The institutions have not taken their plight publicly trying by other channels to collect.
While subsidies are small, the money is vital for the institutions to pay their personnel's salaries. The editorial in Hoy newspaper says that honorary boards staffed by volunteers supervise these important community institutions.
Santo Domingo tramway still on the drawing board
The Technical Secretary of the Presidency Rafael Calderon said that the government is studying offers for the construction of a tramway crossing from the North of Santo Domingo to the East of the capital city. The tramway would start in Los Alcarrizos, a large suburb north of Santo Domingo. He said they are studying offers from companies in France, US and Germany. The construction of a Santo Domingo metro was first considered during the Fernandez administration
Ministry says it is doing its job
The Ministry of Armed Forces says that in the past five months they have confiscated over 100 guns of different kinds, 150 kilos of narcotics and deported over 60,000 illegal Haitians at the frontier. The Ministry said thousands of quintals of rice, beans, garlic, charcoal, whisky and other merchandise have also been confiscated. The military have been in the press after Haiti Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis denounced a Haitian-Dominican mafia along the frontier that involves Dominican military. He said he had proof that trucks that were forcibly detained at the frontier were those that had not paid the "toll" to the military. The Dominican frontier with Haiti is about 400 kilometers long. The frontier area is the poorest in the Dominican Republic.
Two of five hotel rooms in DR built with Spanish investment
Minister of Tourism Ramon Alfredo Bordas said during the Fourth Iberoamerican Conference of Ministers and Tourism Businessmen (FITUR) held in Madrid, Spain that Spain is the principal investor in Dominican hotels. He said that two out of every five hotel rooms have been built with Spanish capital, or 35,800 rooms. He said that as of 1999, Spanish companies have invested 47.8% of the money invested in hotel construction.
Investment by nationality breaks down as follows, as per 1999 Ministry of Tourism statistics:
Spain: US$928,275 million
Dominican Republic: US$638,584 million
Italy: US$59,698 million
United States: US$37,338 million
France: US$29,011 million
Canada: US$28,160 million
Germany: US$21,207 million
Free trade agreement update
President Hipolito Mejia convened Congress back to work in February and top on the priority to do list are the free trade agreements signed three years ago by the Fernandez administration. All hands seem to be up for the passing of the Free Trade Agreement with the Caribbean (Caricom), but conflicts of interest may put the Central American Free Trade Agreement on hold for a few more months.
The special treatment granted to Nicaragua in the Central American Free Trade Agreement the Dominican Republic signed seems to be one of the principal obstacles to the congressional passing of the treaty.
El Caribe newspaper reports that Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, was granted quotas and special tariffs for otherwise protected items such as beef, shrimp, chicken breasts, beans, garlic and onions.
El Caribe reports that local sectors that would be affected by the competition have strong ties to the senators that have been sitting on the treaty.
The newspaper reports that trade with Central America so far is insignificant, only 1% of total imports. Trade by signatory countries is broken down as:
Guatemala: textiles, handicrafts, and pharmaceuticals
El Salvador: pharmaceuticals, plastics, and footwear
Honduras: wood
Nicaragua: seafood, beef, beans, vegetables, chicken breasts
Costa Rica: dairy products, wood
Former head of Spanish government to visit
Felipe Gonzalez, former head of the Spanish government, arrived yesterday to participate in a Forum on Technological Revolution and Democracy. The forum will take place starting Friday, 2 February at the Universidad Iberoamericana. President Hipolito Mejia will be present. Also participating will be top cabinet members, intellectuals, local businessmen and Spanish businessmen that have been invited for the activity.
Only 14% of population has a phone at home
According to the president of Codetel, the leading telecommunication company, only 14% of the Dominican population has access to telephone service at home. He also mentioned that only 7% owns a mobile phone and only 1% has an Internet connection. Engineer Jorge Ivan Ramirez, of Codetel in an interview with Hoy newspaper announced the company would be investing US$240 million this year, which is 20% more than last year.
"We think that the Dominican economy is a very attractive economy that has been growing with a stable democratic system and a very important investment environment," he told the newspaper. He described telecommunications as a facilitator of national competitiveness. He said the telecommunication sector contributed 5-6% to the Gross Domestic Product in 2000.
Telecommunication sector is one of the fastest growing in the DR, especially due to the intense competition and marketing plans that are expected to have the effect of increasing the overall size of the market.
Checkers tournament in Santiago
Nine countries are expected to come for the First International Checkers Tournament. Miguel Lopez, head of the Dominican Checkers Federation said that teams are expected from the United States, Curaçao, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Panama, Brazil, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada. The event will be held at the Deportivo Pueblo Nuevo in northcentral Santiago from 30 March to 3 April.
Mysterious return of woman thought to be dead
After 20 years reported missing, Maria Alejandrina Mercedes (Eneida) returned to her El Seibo hometown in the East. She had left on a clandestine boat trip to Puerto Rico in September 1981, never to be heard of again to the day she just walked back into her parent's house in El Seibo looking for her daughter and her parents. Her father had died a few years ago.
When she departed in 1981, she left behind her six-year-old daughter, Katy Wendy, her parents, three sisters and four brothers. She never sent back word to her whereabouts.
She has refused to be photographed or to talk to the press, but the Listin Diario highlights what is known of the woman who returned with a French accent. The newspaper publishes photos of the house where she lived and of her sister Carmen who is said to share her same lovely green eyes. There is speculation that Mercedes was rescued at sea and spent several years undergoing hardships in an unknown Caribbean island.
Her daughter is 26 years old and lives in Santo Domingo. The little girl was brought up by her maternal and paternal grandparents in El Seibo.
Nuria and Pablo to divorce
When she married, Nuria Piera, the nation's premier television investigative journalist, refused to invite the press, preferring a very private ceremony. Today, El Siglo confirms what has also been kept very quiet. Nuria and her husband journalist Pablo McKinney will divorce after only a year, two months and 18 days of marriage. They have a baby daughter, Leslie Paola born last August. The divorce will be because of incompatibility of characters. This was Piera's first marriage and McKinney's second. The divorce papers were placed at the Camara Civil y Comercial de la Tercera Circunscripcion.
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