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Monetary Code is Law 183-02 President Hipolito Mejia signed the Monetary Code on Thursday at a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, thereby replacing a law that dated back to 1947. The new bill is circulating in the press today, finalizing the procedure that will put it into effect. The law is to be known as Law 183-02 and was signed on the deadline date of a US$29-million Interamerican Development Bank loan for the modernization of the financial sector. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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President Mejia feels obliged to power distributors Prior to departing on his official visit to Japan, President Hipolito Mejia said on his “Una Vez Por Semana” Sunday TV show on Channel 4 that the government is obliged to back the power distributors in their quest for profitability. The Mejia government so far has been very accommodating to the power distributors, both in negotiations with them and in lobbying for concessions to be made in Congress. After harshly criticizing the contracts signed during the Fernandez government, the power distributors have benefited greatly during the present administration. Among other concessions, their contracts have been extended from 5 to 40 years, tariffs have been fixed instead of subject to market forces (Madrid Accord), and there has been a reduction in the limit for large companies to disconnect from the distributors and source power directly from the generators. The Mejia administration has even gone so far as to create a power squadron, funded with taxpayers’ money, to assist the companies in detecting fraud and increasing their collections. Mejia on TV said that the power companies have been very intelligent in their negotiations with the state, having secured 50.01% of the shares of the capitalized companies in order to have majority. “We have to provide them with everything necessary to make this activity profitable, and while the ideal situation would be for us to wash our hands of them, we cannot,” said the President. Power service for anyone consuming more than 1,000 kWh a month has of late become one of the most deficient, while at the same time most costly, energy service in the world, as the government has allowed the companies to increase their tariffs. The concessions granted to the power distributors and the deficient service have a major effect on the competitiveness of Dominican business. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The demise of the Postal Office? For reasons unknown, the Mejia administration seems to care very little, if at all, about the Postal Office. During the final years of the Balaguer administration, the postal office had made great recoveries and during the Fernandez administration the service had regained much of the confidence of its consumers, becoming a very reliable service. But the situation under the Mejia administration has noticeably declined. Inposdom has lost its Codetel phone service for payments past due and El Caribe reports that even though there are lines contracted through Tricom, they are not listed in the telephone directory and intended primarily for internal use only. The best mailmen have resigned, unable to survive the current management of Miguel Tineo, who is the third or fourth director of the service over the past two years. Since the inception of the Mejia government employees are regularly not paid on time and El Caribe reports that the management is two and a half months behind paying its staff. Customs is currently studying reports of theft within the postal system. The demise of the Postal Office would be good news for private couriers, who had lost sizeable amounts of business when the cheaper governmental service had improved. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Minister of Tourism announces his pre-candidacy At an event held on Friday Minister of Tourism Rafael Subervi Bonilla announced his aspirations to become the presidential candidate of the PRD in the May 2004 presidential elections. The current secretary general of the ruling party said that he is next in line for the presidential nomination, explaining that historically in the PRD, the candidate taking second place in the party primaries becomes the candidate for president in the ensuing general elections. He said that despite this pattern, he was not launching his pre-candidacy, only warming up. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Latin American banking meets in DR Executives of XXXVI Annual Assembly of the Federation of Latin American Banks are meeting at the Bavaro Convention Center. Diario Libre reports that the bankers in the opening session called out to Latin American governments to balance their budgets to avoid serious economic crisis. The meeting is organized by The Association of Commercial Banks of the Dominican Republic is sponsoring the event. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cardinal focuses on governmental corruption At a catholic mass on Sunday at the Universidad Catolica Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez criticized the government for its indifferent attitude towards governmental corruption. “Corruption is a curse that has befallen this country. We can say it with pretty words, but it is a disgrace that has fallen upon us and I have not seen any government seriously attempt to fight it,” he said. “When one of them are caught in the act, they are treated lightly - corruption is not taken seriously,” he complained. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tourism needs to be treated as export, says Bernal Johnny Bernal, president of Asonahores, said that the tourism sector seeks that the government recognize the industry as an export. He said that the sector also asks that the government reduce taxes within the tourism industry, including high import tariffs, the ITBIS, and others. In an interview with Hoy newspaper, Bernal said they will propose that the government reimburse tourist businesses for the taxes paid, explaining that this is necessary in order to maintain the competitiveness of the sector. He analogized that while fine tableware items are luxury items to the general consumer, for the hotel and restaurant industry they are raw materials. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Selling gas with credit cards On Friday, the Association of Gas Stations, Anadegas, instructed its members not to accept credit cards in protest against the Cardnet, the credit card processing company, increase of the commission on credit card sales. Anadegas complained that because the price of fuel is fixed, the gas stations cannot pass the increase on to consumers. But news reports say that very few gas stations in Santo Domingo are sticking it out, as a large portion of gasoline and diesel sales are made with credit cards. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Canada’s Unigold Resources invests US$20 million Unigold Resources is investing US$20-million dollars in the exploration of two potentially rich ore fields located in the Northwest of the Dominican Republic. The two mining locations, Neíta and Sabaneta, are located in the provinces of Elias Piña, Dajabón and Santiago Rodriguez. Canadian ambassador Adam Blackwell and the head of Unigold, Alfred Lenorciak, joined Dominican mining authorities Pedro Vasquez and Hugo Dominguez in the ceremony. Unigold is mainly looking for gold, silver, copper and zinc. The Neíta mining reserve comprises 25,221 hectares within the municipalities of Restauracion, Dajabón and Loma de Cabrera, intersecting two provinces, Dajabon and Elias Piña, and are areas which have shown promise for gold, silver, copper and zinc. The Sabaneta mining reserve is comprised of 55,720 hectares and is located within the municipal districts of Loma de Cabrera, Sabaneta, and Pedro Santana. In this area alluvial gold bearing ore has been found, as well as copper ore. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Explosion in Palmar de Ocoa The explosion of an alleged misplaced grenade killed two children and seriously injured another two on Sunday in the affluent beach home area of Palmar de Ocoa, located two hours from Santo Domingo. Listin Diario newspaper reports that the blowout was strong enough to topple a wall. The two surviving children are hospitalized in very serious condition in the Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital in Santo Domingo. The area is adjacent to a Naval Base where military exercises take place. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Liver transplant baby dies The nine-month old baby who had received the first liver transplant in the Dominican Republic, died on Sunday, 24 November after she rejected the organ she received from her mother. A specialized team of physicians from the Plaza de la Salud, working with University of Pittsburgh physicians, had performed the operation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Leading architect exhibits in SD An exhibition of the works of one of the leading architects of the 21st Century, Spaniard Santiago Calatrava, opened at the Museum of Modern Art. Sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, the event will be open for two months on the third floor of the Plaza de la Cultura art gallery. The Museum also has the support of the culture department of the city of Valencia, Spain, the hometown of famous architect. Among his recent awards is the Principe de Asturias Award for the Arts, as well as a doctor honoris causa from several leading engineering and architectural schools around the world. Consuelo Ciscar Casaban, deputy secretary of promotion of the Valencian city government said that she does not doubt that Calatrava could design an architectural structure for the Dominican Republic. “It would depend on the Dominican authorities, but I would like that very much,” she said. She also said that for Calatrava to do so it would require a proposal be made to him and then wait for his inspiration to follow. “With Calatrava everything is possible,” she said. He is well known for his bridges, opera houses, train stations built in Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Israel, the United States, Argentina and America. The Milwuakee Art Museum, named the number one design of 2001 by Time Magazine, was Calatrava’s first US building. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DR is 6th in Central American Games An exhibition of the works of one of the leading architects of the 21st Century, Spaniard Santiago In the medal count for the Central American and Caribbean Games, taking place in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic stands 6th, as of Sunday, 24 November. Weightlifter Guillermina Candelario gave the country its first gold, with Victor Richard winning the first silver in bowling and other Dominican athletes taking bronze medals in various weightlifting and karate events. The team hopes to bring back as many as 90 medals. Cuba has declined to participate in the event, citing insufficient security measures, and leaving Venezuela room to lead the games overall with 25 medals. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aguilas Continue to Roll Guillermo Garcia hit a solo shot in the 6th inning and Armando Muñoz limited Licey to one hit over the final three innings to secure his 3rd save, and the Eagles league-leading 21st victory in a 2-1 win at Quisqueya Stadium. Licey’s offensive struggles continued, as Izzy Alcantara’s home run in the 4th inning accounted for their only score. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Estrellas maintains fight for playoffs Chris Truby knocked in the game winner with two outs in the 9th inning to support the strong pitching performances of Luis de los Santos and Estaban Yan as Estrellas took an 8-7 decision from the Escogido Lions. De los Santos went 5 strong innings giving up just one run and Yan got the final two outs in the top of the 9th to get the win. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gigantes win ninth in a row Ty Wiggington hit his league-leading 8th homerun – a 2-run shot in the first – to lead the Gigantes of Cibao past the Azucareros. Ramon Morel won his third game going 5 strong innings while giving up just one run and striking out 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Baseball standings Aguilas squeaked by Licey 2 – 1 and maintain their lead. San Francisco Gigantes win 9th consecutive game, beating Azucareros, 5 – 2, and the Estrellas get a record win, 8 – 7, over Escogido.
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