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Daily News - 19 February 2001
President continues to back celebration of Pan Am Games
President Hipolito Mejia reaffirmed his support to the Santo Domingo Pan American Games on Saturday, 17 February when interviewed during the opening of a softball tournament. "The Pan American Games are on, regardless," he said, referring to the latest impasse over the use of the Mirador del Este Park for the location of sports venues. He told the press that the problem with the park will be duly clarified. "What you can be sure is that I will give all the money in the world for the Games," he said.
Negotiating the use of city park for Pan Am Games venues
Hoy newspaper reports that former President Joaquin Balaguer's opposition to the construction of facilities for the Santo Domingo Pan American Games at the Mirador del Este Park was due to a misunderstanding that the athletes' village would be located there. The news item also says that now the former statesman's strongest opposition is to the construction of the gymnastics pavilion. The newspaper says that negotiations are on the way so that the former statesman, under whose government the park was built, will give his go ahead to the construction of the installations.
Meanwhile, the Colegio Dominicano de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, that gathers engineers and architects in the DR, said it opposes the use of the Mirador del Este Park for the construction of sport installations. Minister of Environment Frank Moya Pons has also opposed the construction.
New dam announced for La Vega
President Hipolito Mejia announced his government is in favor of the construction of the RD$650 million Francisco Gregorio Mora-Guaiguí Dam in La Vega. The dam will provide electricity, potable water and irrigation to the region. The dam's cost is not contemplated in the National Budget. During his visit to La Vega, the President also announced the start of a housing project for Dominicans resident abroad.
The announcements were made during the government council held in that province.
President Mejia took part in the La Vega carnival events during his visit to that central city. The La Vega carnival, held on Sundays in February, is the most attractive and colorful in the Dominican Republic.
Hipolito: No changes in my cabinet, yet
President Hipolito Mejia said that he will not announce changes in his cabinet on 27 February, as had been customary during past governments. He said that he doesn't have to do things as done in past governments, and mentioned that he hosted the party to receive New Year greetings a week latter than what was traditional, to allow people to enjoy their vacation time. He said he is pleased with the performance of most of his cabinet. He said that to change a cabinet officer, the person has to make lots of mistakes because he respects his ties with people that have supported him. "This is not politics; I believe in friendship, in commitments and loyalty," he said.
At the start of his government, President Mejia has said that those named to cabinet post would only last a year.
Extension for advance on sales tax
The Direccion General de Impuestos Internos (DGII), the tax bureau, said that it will administratively extend the exemption to pay the 1.5% advance tax on sales to businesses selling up to RD$6 million a year. The law states the exemption is only for businesses making up to RD$2 million. The government has submitted a modification to the law, but Congress has not yet passed the modification. The DGII department said that it is allowing businesses a 15-day extension on the deadline to pay the tax. After 28 February, businesses will have to pay a 12.58% surcharge.
The advance on sales tax was primarily instated seeking to collect taxes from businesses that carry out millionaire transactions every year while declaring losses.
Barge to be removed from Malecon
The Navy is in charge of removing the barge that jammed into the coastline in front of the Banco Agricola during Hurricane Georges in 1998. President Mejia ordered that the Navy find the way to remove the petroleum within the tanker and subsequently remove the ship. The tanker measures 250 feet, 46 feet wide.
Induveca merges with Mercasid
Janet Rivera, high-ranking executive of Induveca, the leading meat sausage manufacturer, announced a merge with Mercasid, a leading food and cleaning products manufacturer and distributor. Mercasid is itself the result of another merge, that of Sociedad Industrial Dominicana and Mercalia.
Record year for Punta Cana International
Punta Cana International Airport reports arrivals of 888,852 and departures of 878,469 for 2000, a record for the East Coast's main port of entry. Traffic at the airport is up 35% over 1999. According to the airport, which is a private operation, some 62,221 flights were handled, of which 58% were charters and 42% scheduled.
Most of the arrivals came from Germany, the United States, Canada and Italy. Other source countries were Puerto Rico, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, France, Holland, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Sweden.
Drug dealer's nightmare
Diomaris Almonte, mother of a supposed Dominican New York drug dealer, was kidnapped on 14 February at gunpoint. She was released 53 hours afterwards, after suffering being beat up by her kidnappers. She is recovering satisfactorily, say news reports. Supposedly, she was kidnapped over a fraud of US$3 million involving a drug deal carried out by her son in New York City. Interestingly, press reports indicate that the mother lived in a slum area in the Los Minas neighborhood. She was kidnapped from a friend's house. The Secret Service department of the Police is investigating the kidnapping.
Neighbors fight installation of power plants
Neighbors of the Centro Comercial Acropolis and the Citibank Tower in Piantini oppose the installation of four 2,000-kilo power plants that would supply the modern building with power. The neighbors complain that what is being installed is not an emergency plant, but a permanent source of power to the building. Rodrigo Montealegre, spokesman for the office and commercial center project, says that the building and the power plant fill US Environmental Protection Agency standards for a power plant, and that they will be installing a 34 meter tall chimney with air purifiers. The neighbors say that the new Environmental Law 64 prohibits the installation of a power plant of its kind. The Acropolis building will be the tallest in the Dominican Republic. It is going up at a cost of RD$800 million on Av. Winston Churchill.
Exxon Mobil to invest in DR market
The retail sales director of Esso Standard Oil in the DR, Vinicio Calventi Bonelly said during his presentation at the workshop, "Petroleum and its incidence in the Economy and Development of the Dominican Republic," that Exxon Mobil would invest RD$500 million in the next three years in the DR. He said during the workshop sponsored by the Fundacion Global, Democracia y Desarrollo, head by former President Leonel Fernandez, that the DR is one of the key markets that Exxon is focusing on in Latin America. In a report in El Siglo newspaper on his participation in the workshop, Calventi says the investment of the company will be carried out because of the perspectives for continued growth, and the social, economic and political stability.
Commenting on the gas station market in the DR, he said there are 595 gas stations of which 93% are operated by retailers, and 7% by the distributors (Shell, Texaco, Isla and Esso). He said that the DR is the fastest growing market in the Caribbean and Central American region, posting a growth of 5.3% in this area in 2000. He commented that 46% of fuel product sales are in Santo Domingo, which concentrates 30% of all gasoline stations.
Generators to fight distributors
Rafael Zapata, president of the Chamber of Energy, said that private generators operating in the DR are about to start a legal suit against the three electricity distributor companies for lack of payment. El Siglo newspaper publishes Zapata saying that the distributors owe RD$2,332 million. The generators say that the distributors have not been proactive enough in collecting from consumers that do not pay.
The newspaper article says that the distributors, to cut their losses, have resorted to cutting power supply in areas with high concentrations of non-paying consumers. AES Distribuidora, one of the three distributors, as reports El Siglo, confirmed this. As per the newspaper article, seven Dominican and foreign generators contribute 41.3% of the total power generated last year.
The article explains that the distributors who are pressing the government to cover the losses of supplying power to poor neighborhoods are not paying the state-owned Dominican Corporation of Electricity, that serves as an intermediary between the generators and the distributors. The lack of payment of the distributors affects the ability of the CDE in turn to pay the generators.
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