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No news update for Friday The DR1 Daily News will not be updated tomorrow, 16 August, a national holiday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday headline news will be compiled for the Monday, 19 August news update. 16 August commemorates Restoration Day that marks the end of Spanish rule in 1863. For those living in the DR, it is peak vacation time, with domestic travelers taking to resorts all throughout the nation. |
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Milagros Ortiz is most popular The Hoy Hamilton poll shows that Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, - also the nation’s Minister of Education - is the most popular officer in the Mejia administration. This is the second consecutive year she is ranked first. Next is the head of the National Police, Jaime Marte Martinez with 63%. |
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Education sector overview Minister of Education, Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch told Listin Diario that during her term the number of public schools has increased to 10,884 up from 6,242 in September 2000. She said that enrollment in public schools has increased from 1,831,289 for the 2000-2001 school year, to 2,026,597 students in the 2001-2002 school year. She highlighted the financial cooperation her department has received from the governments of the European Union, the United States, Japan and Taiwan. She said that school desertion continues high at 42%. Other achievements she mentioned: The Education Development Plan for 2002-2012, scholarships in private schools, innovation in administrative matters including new information systems, the successful application of the standardized tests, the creation of the most modern payroll system in the public sector, the school breakfast program, and the transparency with which her department operates. She had words of praise for the participation of private sector to public education, mentioning the contributions made by Falconbridge, Mir, Educa and Leon Jimenes foundations. |
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Placer Dome contract approved Congress has approved the contract between Placer Dome Dominicana and the Dominican government concerning the Pueblo Viejo mine. The company is given the right to service the mine in central Cotui for 25 years. The company won the tender in July 2001. As reported in Hoy newspaper, Deputy Pelegrin Castillo questioned the environmental track record of the company. He mentioned international sources have been very critical of the company’s past performance abroad. Earlier, in Hoy newspaper, Fabio Herrera-Miniño warned that the contract puts the burden on the Dominican government to repair any ecological damage caused by past or future exploitation of the Rosario sulfide deposits. Herrera-Miniño criticized the lease contract under which he says the country will only receive crumbs in exchange for having to assume potentially disastrous ecological damage that certainly will result from working with sulfides. He explained that at present there is no technology guaranteed not to contaminate the environment, kill or damage the flora and fauna in the area. Mining expert Salvador Dajer also has denounced that methods do not yet exist to minimize the damaging effect of sulfide gases and prevent the formation of acid rain. For more on Placer Dome’s past international environmental track record, see http://www.cpcabrisbane.org/ http://www.miningwatch.ca/ http://www.vheadline.com/ |
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RD$174 million to remodel Congress Hoy newspaper reports that the Senate has awarded a RD$174 million contract for the expansion and remodeling of the Congress headquarters to the Consorcio Otesa-Bacha-Hermida-Omega. A tender was held to choose the firm that would do the remodeling and four companies participated. Some 12,000 square meters would be added, doubling the size of the present facilities in the Centro de los Heroes. Reportedly, the Interamerican Development Bank is behind the funding of the expansion. |
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Ecommerce bill passes Congress voted positively on the Dominican Republic’s first electronic commerce bill. The bill had been presented by Deputy Angela Jaquez and regulates electronic commerce. The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) will be responsible for the application of the bill. A ruling needs to be presented within the next six months. |
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Growth sectors Central Bank announced that the Gross Domestic Product grew 6% for the first half of the year. Communications and construction sectors were the most dynamic, while free zone manufacturing and tourism declined. According to data presented by the Central Bank to the Dominican business sector, growth per sector during the first half of the year was as follows: Communications, 26% Construction 14.9% Local manufacturing 14% Electricity and water 12.2% Commerce 7.2% Transport 6.1% Banking 3.1% Mining –20.7% Free Zone manufacturing –11% Tourism –8.5% |
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Audit of power capitalization recommended The Chamber of Deputies recommends that an audit by a renowned international firm be carried out on the privatization of the state electricity utility (CDE). The Chamber of Deputies commission says that while the first audit carried out by Price Waterhouse valued CDE assets at US$1.6 billion in 1996, a second audit that appraised these at US$700 million was used instead when capitalizing the utility. The same Chamber of Deputies is responsible for extending the term of the privatization contracts during the present administration. |
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Plan Renove loans Listin Diario reports that the Senate passed US$36 million in foreign loans for the purchase of buses under the Plan Renove. The government has guarantees on loans taken out with Brazilian and German financial entities. Hoy newspaper published an interview with former Vice President Jacinto Peynado who criticizes that Plan Renove borrowing, amounting to more than US$180 million, is also being used to buy cargo trucks, forklifts, SUVs, and jeeps for transporting tourists in mountain areas. He asked if the buses that are being purchased now will receive the same kind of maintenance given to the OMSA buses, and whether the government (by way of taxpayers) will have to again pick up the tab. |
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Loans in the limbo In its first two years, the government of President Hipolito Mejia has contracted US$1.9 billion in loans and concessions that have not been carried out. El Caribe newspaper today asks about what has happened to the following loans: Hospitals. US$49.3 million with Jamco Medical of Miami for the construction of 10 hospitals. The company promised to deliver the hospitals in 120 days. It was passed in Congress in April 2001. Farming: US$143.3 million with the Deutsche Bank, Spanish Branch, for a vast program of modernization of production technology, conservation and marketing farm products. Passed July 2001. The Spanish organization in charge of guaranteeing the loan later approved only US$49 million of this loan. Housing: US$115 million with Sun Land of Miami for the construction of teacher housing. This loan had the guarantee of US government lending organization Eximbank. US$95 million for construction of 9,000 prefabricated dwellings with Private Export Funding Corporation with the support of Eximbank to be implemented by the Instituto Nacional de Viviendas (INVI). Highways: US$20.9 million for the supply of signs for highways with CCL Peninsular-Eximbank passed in November 2000. This is in addition to US$5.1 million with Bancomex for highway signs. Training: US$49 million with Riogersa to equip vocational schools of the Armed Forces. |
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The controversial US$180 million loan El Caribe points out today that the US$180 million loan that would be used to build 13,500 dwellings for low income families signed by the Presidency Technical Secretary Rafael Calderon with AGS Srl, and Edi.mer was passed despite the Dominican government having received a negative report on the promoters from the Italian authorities. Government officers even traveled to Italy to find more out on the promoters. El Caribe newspaper recalls having interviewed Italian promoters Giuseppe Salamone and Giovanni Todisco of AGS and Edi.mer who at the time demonstrated they had little engineering knowledge. At the time they described themselves as promoters of projects in poor countries, and that their companies were public relations and consulting firms. El Caribe reports that a government source said it was impossible that the government could negotiate a project of such magnitude with unknown persons. The report goes on to say that the reasons why the loan passed in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday are still unknown. |
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Capellan could have been held in Bani Listin Diario reports that the Police are confident they have located the area where Juan Fernando Capellan’s kidnappers held the businessman. The Santiago resident was kidnapped on 2 August and released on 10 August after his family paid a US$1.5 million ransom. The area was located following a tip with Capellan himself who while blindfolded overheard the loudspeaker of a produce-selling pick up truck. By other descriptions given by Capellan, the Police feel they have located the possible house between Finquita Gloria and Playa Sabana Uvero in Paya, Peravia Province (Bani). |
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US$15.8 million to repair Sports Park Minister of Sports Cesar Cedeño announced the signing of a US$15.8 million loan with Venezuelan Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social for the financing of repairs and new construction at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. The JPD Olympic Center is the main venue for the rapidly approaching 2003 Santo Domingo Pan American Games. He said that engineering firm Jantesa-Disconsa would perform the work. In addition to this US$15.8 million loan, the borrowing of US$54.1 million loan under a US government Eximbank lending program has also been announced. The government also announced yesterday that RD$400 million more would be borrowed to complete the athletic village. Jose Joaquin Puello, president of the Organizing Committee, said the government would need to set aside an additional RD$600 million for the games in its 2003 Budget. |
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Picking up the tab for Pan Am Village In January 2001 El Caribe newspaper criticized the organizing of the Pan Am Games on grounds of the hefty amounts the government would have to spend. In the case of the 720 apartments that are needed for the athletic village, the newspaper speculated the government would end up picking up the tab because it did not look like there would be any future buyers for all the apartments. Now 20 months after a private group signed an agreement accepting the financial responsibility for the construction of the villa, the builders have not found financing and the government has had to come to their rescue. Yesterday, the government announced 18 savings associations would lend RD$400 million. The government Banco Nacional de la Vivienda would underwrite the operation. If the apartments do not sell, the Banco Nacional de la Vivienda is likely to be saddled with the abandoned housing complex at taxpayers’ expense. The newspaper criticizes that the 40-years old loans and savings system will have been weakened while the private company, Consorcio Panamericano Sanak S.A., that committed to find the financing, will not be penalized in any way. The builders say that the cost of the villa has increased from the original RD$720 million to RD$864 million, for a RD$1.2 million cost per apartment, way beyond the market price for the area. The Villa is going up at Km. 28 of the Las Americas Highway, near the Las Americas International Airport. El Caribe highlights that the government also contributed the 500,000 square meters where the apartments are going up, in exchange for 35 of the 720 apartments. In addition the government committed to pay RD$80 million to the builders, or RD$23,357 per month from the completion date in April to the end of the Games in August. Similar housing in the area goes for about RD$10,000 per month. |
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Video filmed at Presidential Palace Paulina Rubio, the Mexican pop singer, filmed scenes for her television video Sexual Lover at the Presidential Palace yesterday. Dominican Juan Basanta is the local producer of the video. Scenes were taped at the Embajadores and Las Cariatides halls of the government seat. |
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