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Daily News - 2 March 2001
National Foreign Trade Council (Conacex)
President Hipolito Mejia swore in the new board of the Consejo Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Conacex) at the Hotel Embajador yesterday. The new government body was created by decree this week. The department will make recommendations on foreign policy, export promotion, free zones, foreign investment policy, trade negotiations, market-ordering policy, and evaluate the government programs related to these areas. The members of the board are the ministers of Industry & Commerce (president), Foreign Relations, Finance, Tourism, Agriculture and the Technical Secretary of the Presidency, together with the Governor of the Central Bank.
Also part of the board are the executive directors of the Dominican Center for Promotion of Exports, the National Council of Export Free Zones, the Office for the Promotion of Investments and the National Trade Negotiation Commission.
President decorates US Ambassador
President Hipolito Mejia decorated out-going US Ambassador Charles Manatt with the Order of Merit Duarte, Sanchez and Mella, Silver Cross. The ambassador, a political appointee of the Clinton administration, served a 15-month term, from 17 December 1999. In his short term in the DR, he traveled all throughout the nation, meeting with thousands of persons and finding ways to convert his connections in the US into concrete projects in the areas of education, public health, agriculture, environment and others. He is also recognized for his support to the country's efforts to secure textile parity from the US.
First female general
President Hipólito Mejía promoted Colonel Antonia Liriano Paulino, a dentist, to the rank of General. In the same decree, the President only promoted one other police officer to general, Ramon Augusto Rafael Navarro. On the same day, the statesman gave raises to another 6,597 police men and women. Liriano joined the police force in 1982. A year later she graduated from dental school.
Her promotion comes at a time when a project that would convert the police from a military institution to a community-oriented institution is about to be implemented.
At the time of her promotion, today General Liriano was liaison of the police with the Ministry of Women. There she worked in the department of defense of women's rights.
She thanked the President for the promotion, and said that it came as a surprise. She said the promotion opens the door to other Dominican women.
Gas subsidy to go, gradually
President Hipolito Mejia said that the propane gas subsidy will be gradually eliminated. The market price of propane gas is RD$18 the gallon, but the government sells it in morning hours for RD$8 for household use. Propane gas is used for cooking and for transport in the DR. The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Angel Lockward said that the subsidy amounts to RD$4,000 million a year that the government would prefer to channel to the population in social programs to fight poverty.
Military city construction announced
The chief of the Army, Major General Manuel Ernesto Polanco Salvador announced the construction of the Model Military City in the community of Pedro Brand, National District. The project calls for a US$105 million investment. The Listin Diario reports that as part of the project, 10,000 dwellings will go up for the military. Likewise a commercial center, recreational and educational facilities will be built. These will be part of a complex where a large fort will be built to concentrate the administrative offices and offices of the commands of the army that are at present located in different areas in the National District.
Constitutional reform making headlines again
The Listin Diario gives big front-page headlines to the government announcement that it will present a new bill for constitutional reform. Guido Gomez Mazara, legal adviser to the Executive Branch made the announcement. He said that the government has plans to create a commission of legal experts to draw up the proposal. Meanwhile, the Senate announced that it will reintroduce on this coming Tuesday an earlier bill that had met with widespread rejection from the civic society and even by Hatuey de Camps, president of the government party.
A recent poll showed that the generality of the population does not oppose reforming the Constitution but considers the action untimely. There is concern the congressmen want to slip in an extension of their terms that are up in August 2002.
On the matter, President Mejia told the press: "I will not intervene in that." The President has said several times that he will not be up for re-election and that his term ends in 2004.
Politics in public education
El Siglo newspaper publishes a letter from Gilda Rosa who says that she believes she is a victim of politics in the Ministry of Education. She explains that she entered the Ministry under an earlier PRD administration, leaving when the educational project she was entrusted with was completed. She said she returned to the Ministry hired by the Minister of Education of the previous PLD administration given her qualifications as a well-known specialist in education using television.
Her comments come after Minister of Education Milagros Ortiz Bosch denied professionals have been fired for political reasons in her department.
Rosa comments that not only have persons affiliated to opposition parties been fired for non professional reasons, but also those like herself that do not belong to the political project of the Minister, who is also Vice President of the Republic and aspires to the Presidency of the Republic. Hoy newspaper indicates that a recent report, "The Future of Education in the DR," was funded by the Agency of International Development after Minister Ortiz requested it from former Ambassador Charles Manatt. The study alerts that the public education sector needs to overcome political partisanship in its personnel practices, and needs to break with the tradition that establishes that each department is a source of jobs for party members. The study indicates that this affects the quality of education from the upper echelons of the department to the most far away schools, and the teachers union.
Government changes affects spending
El Siglo reports on the concern of the business sector on recent government actions. The presidents of two leading business organizations, Ignacio Mendez (Federacion de Asociaciones Industriales) and Antonio Espin (Asociacion de Empresas Industriales de Herrera) coincided in their comments to the newspaper that in the past four months, since talks on increasing taxes started, sales have dropped as well as investments and the expansion rate of several sectors. Mendez and Espin said that if the situation continues several small and medium size businesses will go under. Mendez said that the fact that a law is passed today and tomorrow it is modified or a decree is issued that contradicts it creates uncertainty among businessmen and investors. He said that this problem is causing people to be cautious about spending.
Espin said that stores are going through a slow period and that the government should do less talking and work to reactivate the economy. He said President Mejia's role is to make the economy more dynamic so that poverty can be really confronted with the creation of new jobs.
The governor of the Central Bank, Frank Guerrero said that the country will continue to be the fastest growing economy in Latin America with a 6-6.5% growth and 7-8% inflation rate.
American announces flights are back to normal
The director of American Airlines, Raul Fiallo announced that the airline's operations are back to normal. American Airline flights from John F. Kennedy International in New York City to and from Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo international airports were affected yesterday, with several flights suspended. Yesterday, the four regular flights left as scheduled, and an extra flight transported passengers that had not been able to fly on Wednesday. The passengers were affected by a slow down of mechanics. Fiallo said that the technicians carried out extra revisions to the airlines without justified causes that caused the delays.
Organizing Committee of Pan Am Games awaits promised funds
The Listin Diario reports that the Organizing Committee of the XXIV Panamerican Games is going through difficult times still. The newspaper point out the committee has not yet received the budgeted RD$11 million allotment for either January or February. The President had committed to pay RD$25 million to the organization. As of 1 March this had not occurred. The committee has been receiving the RD$700,000 allotment for its payroll says the report.
The Pan Am Games have a RD$365 million in allotments approved in the 2001 National Budget.
The Listin Diario reports that the Presidency appointed Carlos Cochon Reyes on 16 February as coordinator between the Executive Branch and the Organizing Committee.
El Siglo reports that the City of Santo Domingo has offered the Organizing Committee, of which Mayor Johnny Ventura is a member, 520,000 square meters in eastern Santo Domingo on the way to San Isidro for the construction of sports venues. These venues were slated to go up on grounds of the Mirador del Este Park but influential former President Joaquin Balaguer has objected.
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