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Daily News - 14 May 2001
Duty free gifts for Mother's Day
Mother's Day in the Dominican Republic is the last Sunday in the month, or 27 May this year. The Customs Department announces that during the month of May returning Dominican expatriates can bring in a selection of appliances without having to pay duties. The duty free gifts program is open to all Dominicans who have not visited in the past six months.
Police and Drug Department raid on night spots
More than 50 minors were taken into custody of the Police after they were found in nightclubs in Santo Domingo during a raid that took place over the weekend. The Public Relations Department of the Police says they also arrested 43 prostitutes, 13 homosexuals, five owners of businesses and several military and police agents. Judiciary officers, drug control department, public health and police officers participated. In one nightspot alone in Arroyo Hondo, nine prostitutes were arrested.
In the Dominican Republic, prostitution is not legal, but it is tolerated. The child protection law seriously penalizes prostitution of minors.
Earlier in the month, a similar operation in the tourist area in Sosua, Puerto Plata resulted in the arrest of 20 persons. And a raid in Boca Chica, ended with 40 female and 33 male arrests including several minors.
Work continues on Santiago-Navarette highway
The Listin Diario reports advances are being made at a good pace on the completion of the expansion of the Santiago-Navarette highway. An investment of RD$519 million, the highway has been under construction for several years now. The highway once completed will shorten the time it takes to go from Santiago to Puerto Plata.
Press focuses on violence tolls
The Listin Diario newspaper points out there were 12 victims of violence over the weekend, adding to 28 other violent deaths over the past eight weeks. El Siglo newspaper points out that 102 civilians and several policemen were killed, primarily in confrontations with the Police and the Armed Forces at "colmadones" (corner grocery shops turned into bars) and discos. Many of the deaths that resulted from cross fires were linked to drug trafficking activities.
El Siglo reports November was the most violent month with 25 persons described by the Police as delinquents, murdered. The Police argues that the judiciary sets the criminals free and thus has taken upon itself the eliminating of "undesirables" from city streets, attributing the deaths to the cross fires. Vice President Milagros Ortiz admitted there has been an increase in violence locally, but emphasized the DR continues to be one of the most tranquil and safe places in Latin America. She says there is a need for a Police with a community vision and attributed the rise in crime to the globalization of crime.
Not the best of times to issue the sovereign bonds
Economist Frederic Emam Zade, director of economic studies for the Fundación Global y Desarrollo, warned that the government runs the risk of issuing the sovereign bonds and having to discount them at half price due to the lack of confidence of foreign investors in the Dominican economy. He said that the government's efforts to discredit the economic growth of the past years for political reasons is likely to have a boomerang effect when seeking foreign investment. In his opinion, foreign investment is down 40% compared to last year. He forecast that foreign investment this year will only reach US$600 million, down from figures of above US$1,000 in the past two years.
Emam Zade says that because of the negative propaganda on the state of the economy the government may not be able to take advantage of the slow down in the US economy that leads US businessmen that seek to reduce their costs to outsource production abroad. " if the DR had a good image, they would be investing here," said Emam Zade.
He said that now the Dominican government is suffering the consequences of spreading doubt as of August 2000 to the economic performance of the economy that has resulted in a negative image.
Consequentially, Emam Zade does not feel the timing is right to issue the bonds. He said that if buyers are not found, these will have to be heavily discounted, while the country will be indebted for the full amount.
Urgent reduction of tariffs urged
The National Council of Business (CONEP) has proposed a 50% reduction in the tariffs prior to the entrance into effect of the GATT tariffs valorization system. The application of GATT tariffs code will increase taxable values of imports. This could bring a television set that sold for RD$5,000 to sell for RD$9,000 if the tariffs are not revised downward, according to a report in El Caribe.
Vicente Sanchez Baret, director of Customs said that they are preparing to implement the GATT Valorization System as of 1 July on schedule. He promised Customs officers will no longer be able to set the values for taxation.
But Antonio Espin, president of a large appliance store, doubts the Customs Department is ready for the application of the GATT code. "In reality, nobody knows which will be the new organization of the Customs. GATT requires an administrative and operational reorganization of the Customs Department that should already have installed and at this point be operating pilot programs," he told El Caribe.
"The director of Customs may have the best of intentions, but not only good intentions are needed, they have to be prepared with an agile organization, that is dynamic and a new structure with a new philosophy and new professionals," he said.
Antonio Espin, who is also president of the Herrera Industrial Association, said that to avoid a second inflationary outbreak a reduction in tariffs is necessary to reduce significantly the interest in contraband. He explained that as tariffs are reduced contraband becomes less attractive. But if the adjustments in tariffs are not made there will be a general increase in prices.
Government office hustlers are back in full force
The former Commissioner for the Reform and Modernization of the State, Onofre Rojas lamented that the RD$86 million investment the state made from 1996-2000 in the modernization and automating of government offices is being thrown in the trash by the present administration. El Caribe recently covered a report on how the government office hustlers, known as "buscones" are back in again. Rojas said that the government implemented a major program to relocate these workers by training them for other jobs. He said that one of the most extreme cases of the efficiency achieved was that when the program started it took 45 days to retrieve an imported car from customs, and this was cut down to two hours.
The present chaos in many government offices, the turtle pace at which innumerous new unskilled employees are working, has renewed the need for these connoisseurs of how things work to expedite the required services for consumers. The buscones serve as intermediaries, and grease the government employees on behalf of their clients.
Do we really need a Ministry of the Overseas
El Caribe editorial today is critical of the bill presented to Congress by the Executive Branch that would create a new ministry, the Secretaria de Ultramar. It comments that the appointed Minister for Overseas Affairs, Antonio Torres has already placed 24 new persons in the New York consul with the positions of vice consuls. The editorial says that now Mr. Torres seemingly has convinced President Mejia to establish the Ministry and open satellite offices abroad.
El Caribe says that all of the functions set for the new ministry could perfectly be developed by less but more qualified diplomatic and consular personnel, with no need for the new ministry and its costly politicized bureaucracy.
The editorial says that the announcement of the new ministry contradicts a recent announcement by President Mejia himself that the government would stop hiring new personnel.
Starting from zero every four years
Francisco Dominguez Brito, executive director of the Foundation for Institutionality and Justice (Finjus) advocates the need for a mixed party body of the National Public Administration Personnel Office and the National Institute of Public Administration to create a true public server corps. This would avoid that every four years a whole new public service personnel be hired affecting the efficiency of the state.
All political parties upon gaining office have seen the budget and jobs as a political booty at the service of political patronage. Dominguez urged that maximum priority be given to the implementation of the Law of Civil Service and Administrative Career to put a stop to this practice.
There was no burning of the flag
A La Romana court determined it was not true that on 14 April a Dominican flag was burned by a group of Haitians during a "gagá" religious ceremony. Olaya Dotel, a contributor to Hoy newspaper explains that the court determined that all resulted from the imagination of the xenophobia of journalist Julio Perello who was apparently bothered that the Haitians would wave the Dominican flag as part of their rite. The attorney general of La Romana, Dr. Elpidio Peguero released 87 that were accused after investigations could not show up a single witness to the burning nor remnants of the supposedly burned flag. On the contrary, police agents who witnessed the ceremony declared to the contrary, saying that if this had occurred they would have immediately denounced it to their superiors.
Dotel criticizes that Brigade General Dario de la Cruz Consuegra sought to take advantage of the situation, declaring that police agents had seen remnants of the burned flag, the same ones that never could be presented during the court investigation. Likewise, Minister of the Armed Forces Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez also seemingly sought to take advantage of the situation in a ceremony to honor the Dominican flag organized shortly after the incident where he was critical of the Haitians. Dotel says that both De la Cruz and Soto Jimenez should publicly recognize their premature judgements and apologize.
Dominicans are fourth largest Latin American group in US
According to an analysis in El Caribe, the year 2000 US Census shows that the Dominican population in the United States has increased 47% in the past 10 years. It has gone from 520,151 in 1990 to 764,945 last year. The census shows that Dominicans make up 2.2% of the Hispanic population, that is in turn 12% of the total US population. The census shows Dominicans make up the fourth largest group of Latin Americans behind the 20.6 million Mexicans, 3.5 million Puerto Ricans, and 1.2 million Cubans. In Puerto Rico, the same census estimates there are 106,400 persons, or 2.8% of the total Puerto Rican population.
In the US, Dominicans are concentrated in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Florida. The average age of Dominicans in the US is 29.5 years.
Sunday Miami Herald focuses on Punta Cana
The Miami Herald dedicates extensive coverage to Punta Cana in its Sunday edition. The newspaper report emphasizes that Punta Cana is the low cost alternative for those seeking a great Caribbean vacation. For a short on the features see http://www.miami.com/herald/content/features/travel/digdocs/083717.htm
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