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Daily News - 13 March 2001
Caricom FTA clarifications
Maritza Amalia Guerrero of the Ministry of Foreign Relations makes several clarifications regarding a yesterday news brief on the Caricom FTA compiled from print news sources yesterday. She clarifies on the formalities leading to the implementation of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement signed by the President. She explains that the official transcript of the Resolution of Congress was sent to the Caricom Secretariat by fax on Saturday, 11 March and by DHL on Monday, 12 March. She says that Caricom has yet to set the date to meet with the Dominican Republic team. When they are ready, a Joint Committee will be established to implement the Agreement.
Moreover, the mission that is traveling to Trinidad is not an official one. The Trinidad & Tobago Chamber of Commerce organized a Convention on Trade and Investment and invited the T&T Chamber of Commerce in the DR to attend. The T&T Chamber of Commerce invited the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the director of the Dominican Center for the Promotion of Exports (Cedopex) and the director of the Dominican Republic Investment Promotion Office (Opi) to join the group of entrepreneurs head by Fernando Gonzalez Nicolás that would travel to Trinidad. The first two accepted and that is the purpose of the mission to Trinidad, not to decide anything with regards to the Caricom Free Trade Agreement.
She also clarifies that the Caricom Secretariat is located on the third floor of the Bank of Guyana Building, 1 Ave. of the Republic, Georgetown, Guyana. The telephone numbers are: (592) 226-8353; (592) 226-9281 to 9289, and the fax numbers, (592) 226-4492 and (592) 226-7816. The Secretary-General of CARICOM is Dr. Edwin Carrington.
ID cards to be valid for 10 years, not five
The Junta Central Electoral ruled that the identity and voting cards to be issued as of now are to be valid for 10 years. The JCE also ruled that youths registering for the ID card before their 18th birthday will be issued the card with the same number as the definite card they will be issued once they are 18. The first voting card that is issued to those that will not be of voting age for the next municipal, congressional or presidential election will be of a different color and will read in Spanish, "DOES NOT VOTE."
Good news for Santo Domingo voters
Democratic advances prevailed and the Junta Central Electoral has approved the system whereby in the May 2002 congressional and municipal election a large number of Dominicans will be able to vote for deputies and aldermen that they feel will better represent them. In the past, voters could only choose the political party of preference that in turn decided who the elected politicians would be. As per the Electoral Law in effect, voters will be able to choose from among a list of candidates pre-selected by the party. Some political sectors are proposed to modify this. This was overruled by consensus of the political parties.
Parties will now have to choose better candidates, and those that get elected will need to do a better job in Congress or city government to be re-elected by the citizens whose vote will prevail over internal party politics.
The system will apply in the National District and six provinces. El Caribe newspaper explains:
National District (Santo Domingo) is divided into nine districts with 44 deputies and 84 aldermen.
Santiago de los Caballeros will have 4 districts and elect 14 deputies.
Duarte (San Francisco de Macoris) will have two districts and six deputies.
San Juan de la Maguana will have two districts and five deputies. San Cristobal will have two districts and eight deputies.
Puerto Plata will have two districts and five deputies.
La Vega will have two districts and seven deputies.
According to El Caribe, the National District electoral districts include the following neighborhoods:
Distrito Electoral No. 1:
30 de Mayo, Bella Vista, Buenos Aires, Ciudad Nueva, Ciudad Colonial, Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Verde, El Cacique, El Millon, Ensanche Naco, Gazcue, General Antonio Duverge, Honduras del Norte, Honduras del Oeste, Jardines del Sur, Julieta Morales, la Esperilla, La Julia, Los Cacicazgos, los Prados, Los Restauradores, Mata Hambre, Mirador Norte, Mirador Sur, Miraflores, Miramar, Nuestra Señora de la Paz, Paraiso, Piantini, Quisqueya, Renacimiento, San Geronimo, Reparto Atala, San Juan Bosco, Tropical Metaldom, among others.
Distrito Electoral No. 2:
Aeropuerto de Herrera, Alameda, Buenos Aires (Herrera),
Engombe, Enriquillo, Haina, Herrera, Juan Pablo Duarte, La Altagracia, La Rosa, Las Caobas, Las Palmas Real, Manoguayabo, Santo Domingo Country Club, Zona Industrial de Herrera
Distrito Electoral No. 3:
Altos de Arroyo Hondo, Arroyo Manzano, Cerros de Arroyo Hondo, Cristo Rey, La Agustina, La Fe, Los Jardines, Los Perplejos, Los Rios, Nuevo Arroyo Hondo, Viejo Arroyo Hondo
Distrito Electoral 4:
24 de Abril, Domingo Savio, Ensanche Capotillo, Ensanche Luperon, Espaillat, Gualey, La Zurza, Maria Auxiliadora, Mejoramiento Social, San Carlos, Simon Bolivar, Villa Consuelo, Villa Francisca, Villa Juana, Villas Agricolas
Distrito Electoral 5:
Cancino, Los Minas Norte, Los Minas Sur, Los Tres Brazos
Distrito Electoral 6:
Alma Rosa, Ensanche Ozama, Isabelita, Las Americas, Los Mameyes, Los Tres Ojos, Los Trinitarios, Maquiteria, Mendoza, Sans Souci, Villa Duarte, Villa Faro
Distrito Electoral 7:
El Coco de Pedro Brand, El Pedregal, Los Alcarrizos
Distrito Electoral 8:
Higuero, La Bomba, La Victoria, Sabana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Villa Mella
Distrito Electoral 9:
Boca Chica, Cancino, Guerra, Hato Viejo, Mendoza
Ministry of Culture confirms indian artifacts were fake
The Minister of Culture Tony Raful confirmed that 49 Indian objects confiscated by the Customs Department of Miami and returned to the DR were fakes. He said that a study of the objects carried out by the Museum of Dominican Man showed they were copies of Taino artifacts. Supposedly, the items would have been sold as originals in the US.
Senators will set on constitutional reform bill
Given the uproar over the untimeliness of the reform, Dario Gomez (PRD-Santiago Rodriguez) now favors opening talks with different sectors. He agreed with Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez that the time is right to initiate debates on the subject. He told the press that Congress is not in a hurry. But he said, as quoted in El Siglo, "We are going ahead with God, without a rush, but firmly and resolutely towards reform."
The reform is opposed on grounds that there are more important matters for Congress to be working on, and that the move hides the interest of congressmen in extending their term in office, as well as the intent to restore to political sectors the choosing of judges.
To educate the public, Telecentro, Channel 13 will be telecasting a round table on the subject tonight at 9 pm. Juan Daniel Balcacer will be the moderator. The speakers are: Dario Gomez (PRD), Victor Gomez Berges (PRSC), Cesar Pina Toribio (PLD), Miguel de la Rosa (Dominican Law Bar), Melba Barnet (Participacion Ciudadana civic society group), Francisco Dominguez Brito (Foundation for Institutionality and Justice) and historian Ramon Font Bernard.
Second vote needed to chose PLD secretary general
Runner up Alejandrina German refused to decline her aspirations to secretary general of the Dominican Liberation Party to Reynaldo Pared Perez who received 48% of the vote. Pared Perez is said to represent the interests of the Danilo Medina group, while German represents those of former Vice President Jaime David Fernandez. German received 32% of the vote. Third place winner Jose Tomas Perez received 20% of the vote. To win the position, 50%+1 of the vote was necessary. Former President Leonel Fernandez traveled to a summit of former statesman held in Colombia, and was not present for the vote. The new round will take place on this Thursday.
Feasibility studies showed refinery doesn't make sense
The former President of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery said that feasibility studies that have already been carried out discard building a second refinery in the Dominican Republic. President Chavez promoted the idea of building a refinery in Monte Cristi and another in Cabo Rojo for re-export of refined petroleum products to the Caribbean during his visit to the DR last weekend. Radhames Segura said that President Chavez promoted the idea for political propaganda reasons.
Segura explained that the idea was popular in the 70s when refineries were built in Bahamas and St. Croix for export to Puerto Rico, that rejected the construction for environmental reasons. He said that there is already more than sufficient installed capacity in refineries in Curaçao, Bahamas and St. Croix to serve the region.
Petroleum spill spots boats at Santo Domingo Yacht Club
A spill of petroleum reached the Andrés, Boca Chica coastline spotting yachts parked in the Santo Domingo Yacht Club. The Navy was alerted and quickly went to work to remove 55 gallons of petroleum residuals, employing brigades of 80 men at a time. The petroleum stain alert coincided with the announced start of a course by the Navy and the Clean Caribbean Cooperative (Mobex 2001) that would train Dominican personnel to deal with this kind of emergency. Thie course and its exercises are sponsored by the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (a joint venture with Shell). A Navy spokesman said the stain could have reached Dominican shores because many times ships enter the area overloaded and discard the excess in order to be able to enter the Port of Santo Domingo. He also said that some ship captains of tankers, in violation of international agreements, wash their tanks in the Mona Channel prior to returning to Venezuela.
Commercial Bank president alert
The president of the Association of Commercial Banks, Andres Aybar called the attention of the government to reactivate the economy. He said in an interview with the Listin Diario that the government instead of thinking of new rulings and charges for banks should focus on developing the economy so that bank clients do not have to default on their payment plans to the banks, that could affect the banking sector.
Aybar cautioned that banks depend on the well-being of their clients and they are seeing that sales levels are dropping to a point that is affecting the payment capacity of many of their clients.
He said that monetary policy is stable, but bank clients are also confronting problems in Customs.
He also said that the monetary authorities should work on creating financial instruments that attract long term deposits, such as pension plans.
He said that the monetary authorities want to impose norms that cannot be met by the banks. He said that today most people are making short term deposits, preferring 30 day deposits, in order to be able to renegotiate their deposits given expectations that interest rates could go up.
Aybar commented that the new demands for banks to keep higher reserves gives international banking the impression that banks here are having problems when this is not the situation.
But he said that if the monetary authorities impose the norms as announced, the risk will increase from a 4 level to 10 or 12%, which will result in closing of international lines of credit. Aybar reaffirmed that the higher banking risk does not exist, despite new demands of international financial organizations that are being very aggressive demanding high reserve levels. He said that Dominican companies are having problems paying the new taxes, but that is not a banking problem.
He alerted that with the new conditions, what is being created is an artificial situation whereby local banks are being made to appear to be at high risk. He said this will result in international banks coming in and buying out local banks below their worth.
Telecable suspects former employees
Jose Florentino, chief executive of Telecable, the largest local cable TV company, says they have provided the Police with information on suspects that could have caused the sabotage to three points of their optic fiber connections. Reportedly, the cut affected 90% of Telecable users in Santo Domingo, as well as communications of Orange and Centennial. He said Telecable has invested RD$2 million to restore service. He said highly skilled persons that know how the company network operates carried out the cuts.
Free zone employees want higher minimum wage increase
Representatives of free zone employees are back at the Ministry of Labor to discuss a larger wage increase. A 12% wage increase had been approved for these, but this was impugned by the labor unions after the workers of the tourism sector received a 15% minimum wage increase.
Bo Derek, Princess Von Furstenberg and Isabel Presley in Santo Domingo
Notables Bo Derek (www.boderek.com), Princess Ira Von Furstenberg and Isabel Presley (former wife of Spanish crooner Julio Iglesia, present wife of former Minister of Economy of Spain Miguel Boyer), were in Santo Domingo for the opening of the Porcelanosa ceramics store. La Carabela has the representation of the Spanish ceramics company in the DR. Oscar de la Renta also came for the opening of the store that is located at Lope de Vega corner Rafael Augusto Sanchez street, in front of La Carabela. Isabel Presley said that it is her fourth visit to the DR. "I take advantage of any opportunity to come here as I love this country and I have some friends here," said Presley.
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