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Daily News - 26 April 2001
Train from Santo Domingo to Santiago announced
The Ministry of Public Works signed a contract yesterday with Consorcio para el Desarrollo Ferroviario Nacional. The consortium plans to invest US$300 million to build a 160-kilometer long railway from the Port of Haina to Santiago, in the center of the DR. Minister Miguel Maldonado said the tracks will go up on a 15 meter strip on both sides of the Duarte Highway. The government concession is for 50 years, after which the railroad will belong to the Dominican state.
Work is scheduled to start at the end of the year once the environmental impact studies are completed. The railroad would carry freight and passengers. It should be operational in 30 months.
The company also contemplates a second phase, when the railroad will be extended to Puerto Plata and Manzanillo along the North Coast.
Hoy newspaper also reports the possibility of the construction of another railroad. On 20 March 2000, the Consejo Regional de Desarrollo de San Francisco de Macoris announced a project to rebuild the railroad that linked Sanchez (Samana province) with La Vega. There are also plans to extend the railroad to Mao and Haiti in the Northwest. A German company would carry out this project.
Advancing to restore DR airlines right to fly to US
The director of the Civil Aviation Board, Anibal Amparo Garcia, announced that his department is working closely with the US Federal Aviation Agency to restore the right of DR airlines to fly to US territory. He said the government has authorized 50% of the duties levied on charter airlines to be used for this purpose.
The previous government invested more than US$11 million in a program with United Nations agency, ICAO, to this same end without any advances being made. Garcia said that his department is working on a diagnosis of the deficiencies of civil aviation and creating action plans for the maintenance of aircraft and operational safety. He said workshops would be held to prepared technicians. Garcia visited President Mejia yesterday with a US mission to discuss the situation.
176 million Euros donated to DR
The European Union has available 176 million Euros (approximately RD$2,500 million) for education, environmental, geology and mining projects in the DR. Manuel Caceres Troncoso, in charge of the European Union programs, said the money would begin to be distributed next year. The Dominican government is required to advance a RD$25 million counterpart to the funds, as reported by El Caribe newspaper.
Plan for low-income barrios to pay for their power
Electricity Superintendent, Jose Ovalles said electricity distributors are working closely with his department to implement the Programa de Reduccion de Apagones (Program to Reduce Power Outages) in large slums in Santo Domingo and its environs. The program promises fewer blackouts for neighborhoods that meet their payment level requirements. The Superintendency and the distributors have worked out three categories of payment: RD$100, RD$200 and RD$300 depending on estimated consumption of the households in the area. He said that if more people make their payments, the neighborhoods would receive more hours of power.
"Everyone pays their phone, supermarket and even credit card bills," said Ovalles. "It's time to start paying for power service." He explained the state needs to reduce the RD$300 million subsidy on electricity service.
The Superintendent announced that as of June, all households that were billed at around RD$1,500 a month will see about 20% increases in their power bills, reflecting the reduction in the government subsidy. Recently, the government also announced a cut in the subsidy on propane gas.
Slow down in Public Works construction
The Listin Diario newspaper reports today that economic constraints have brought many large public works practically to a halt. The Ministry of Public Works says it has only received RD$220 million of a budgeted RD$1,600 million needed to push ahead public works that are underway. Among them is the completion of the Las Americas Highway to the east, the new bridge parallel to the Duarte Bridge and the repairs of Duarte Bridge itself, the central library of the state university, the completion of the Autovia del Este that links eastern provinces and the capital city and even the completion of the warm-up track at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Olympic Center. Sectors say the government increased its current expenditures expecting an increase in income from the new tax laws. Thousands of new staff were hired but the new taxes had a boomerang effect on the economy, worsening the slowdown that in turn resulted in failure to meet the income expectations of the government. Since the government would be in a difficult predicament if it began firing party members hired at the start of the new government, capital investments have been the first to be cut. The government has intensified its efforts to collect the new taxes, while certain departments announce cuts in funding for supplies and other expenditures.
Implementation of Social Security bill could take many years
President Hipolito Mejia is expected to sign the Social Security Bill into law this 10 May, the day that commemorates the death of PRD party leader, Jose Francisco Peña Gómez. But El Caribe newspaper points out that if the government doesn't hustle, the implementation of the bill may not happen in this administration. The departments involved need to sort out the rulings, administration and all the complex bureaucracy that will be needed for its implementation.
The new law creates a Seguro Nacional de Salud for state employees and the unemployed. Private pension and medical health plans are available to the privately employed and to state workers who choose to privately contract these services.
El Caribe newspaper explains that this week the Senate passed what could be described as a "declaration of principles," after more than 20 years of discussions.
"If there is to be a system of fair social security, it will depend on the creation of the complex structure on which it will be built," explains a report on the bill in the newspaper.
Former Central Bank governor refutes economic crisis
Former Governor of the Central Bank Hector Valdez Albizu said the Dominican economy is in no way in crisis. He said that the deficit of the balance of payments at year-end was US$48 million, "practically nothing." The balance of payments had shown a surplus during the previous five years.
Valdez attributed the situation to an adjustment process that takes time. He was interviewed at the end of the "Dollarization of the Economy" workshop organized by the American Chamber of Commerce.
Valdez trusts the economy will return to normal within the next few months. He said this will occur as soon as people change their apprehensions and negative expectations.
He said the present government received a viable and healthy economy. If not, the present authorities would not have been able to announce year-end growth of 8% with an inflation rate of 9% and a fiscal deficit of 2%, as well as a stable peso. The Mejia administration took office last August.
Microsoft sales in DR are up 156%
Martin Taylor, general manager Microsoft Caribbean, said that their sales in the DR are up 156% over the past two years. He said the company is concentrating its efforts on promoting the use of Microsoft's business platform.
An unofficial holiday
Today, Secretaries Day, 26 April, can be considered an unofficial holiday. Most people came to work prepared for the lunchtime partying that will usually mean taking the rest of the day off. Other unofficial holidays in the DR are Easter Thursday, and the afternoons of 23 December and 24 December which precede the Christmas Day holiday. The same can be said for the afternoon of 29 December and 30 December, which precede the official 1 January holiday.
Sport leader hopes for passage of Sports Bill
Former president of the Dominican Tennis Federation, Gonzalo Mejia urged Congress to pass the Dominican Sports Bill. He feels the Dominican sports authorities have lost interest in the bill and are focusing on other matters "that apparently are more productive moneywise or more interesting such as the building of the Pan American Games villa and sports installations, but nobody is talking about organizing sports in the DR." Mejia feels the bill is essential to organize sports here. If not, the money spent will be like "throwing it into the sea." "Pan American Games cannot be held only for the purpose of building a villa or sports installations, and that is what the Dominican Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Pan American Games, this government and the previous government are involved in," complained Mejia.
Dr. Jose Joaquin Puello said last week that there is no time to seek a major athletic development program, which was one of the major reasons for hosting the Games here. He said the time for that was lost. "There is no time to develop new talents," said Puello. Puello has favored scouting for Dominican athletes abroad.
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