A government mission from the Popular Republic of China visited President Leonel Fernandez at the Presidential Palace yesterday. The group was escorted by Minister sans Portfolio Miguel Mejia. Participating in the meeting was Cai Weiquar, in charge of the Chinese commercial office in Santo Domingo, and mission chief Huai Zhongxin. Zhongxin offered technical cooperation in marine affairs, environment, natural resources, education and health.
Chinese investors recently purchased the Falconbridge ferronickel plant in Bonao.
The Financial Times reports today that China's President Hu Jintao is making his first-ever trip to Latin America amid talk that his country may be poised to make multi-billion dollar investments in regional infrastructure and other projects.
The Chamber of Deputies has approved a first reading of a bill that would increase the minimum wage in the government sector, including the military and police, to RD$4,000 per month. It also establishes a RD$3,000 minimum for those in retirement. Exempt from the new levels are judges and the administrative personnel of the Judicial Branch. The bill establishes an across-the-board 30% increase to the salaries of government officers earning up to RD$90,000 a month. By their votes, the deputies determined that government wages would rise by 20% in January and another 10% in July 2005. The government had sought to budget a 15% increase in January and another 15% in July. The bill furthermore proposes that wages be indexed to the Central Bank's Consumer Price Index.
The legislators voted by a count of 107 in favor and two against. Ruddy Gonzalez and Jose Gonzalez of the PRD protested the bill for being left out of the floor debates. A second reading is still necessary to have the measure ratified. The legislators plan to merge it with a bill passed in the Senate that proposes a 30% wage increases in the private and in public sectors as of January.
The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Jorge Subero Isa, believes the constitutional reform should be left for another time. "There are greater problems we must confront at this time. The reform of the constitution can wait," he said. Subero Isa does not believe that modifying the constitution will contribute to resolving the serious difficulties the nation is undergoing at the present time. President Leonel Fernandez has supported constitutional reform to guarantee a greater level of democracy and pluralism in society and protect the rights and obligations of citizens.
In the previous modification to the constitution, which occurred 25 July 2002, presidential re-election was reintroduced and closed voting stations were eliminated.
Subero said that it is necessary to establish a constitutional panel in order to review the motions received regarding violations to the nation's charter. The judge supports adopting the Costa Rican model, in which a constitutional hall operates within the structure of the Supreme Court of Justice. A method is being sought to give more agility to the Supreme Court, which at present has 170 decisions pending on cases submitted for alleged constitutional violations.
The deputy and technical directors of the Customs department, Luis Sanchez and Eduardo Rodriguez, are disputing claims being made by three companies operating along the Haitian border area. These businesses were taking advantage of Law 28-01, which promotes border development and grants certain duty exemptions, by blurring the definitions between raw materials and finished goods, as reported in the Listin Diario. DR Customs is challenging tax-exempt imports made by Electro del Noroeste, Inversiones Margie located in Monte Cristi and Electricosa del Mundo. Executives of these companies insist that they have imported components for assembly and not finished goods. They say that finished goods are those that you can plug in, such as appliances, and have secured the support of the senators in the border region, Bernardo Aleman (Monte Cristi), Angel Dignocrates Perez (Pedernales) and Dagoberto Adames (Independencia) to fight their case against Customs, whose officials maintain that the items imported were finished goods. The freight containers, which were opened in the presence of the legislators, business representatives and members of the press, were found to contain refrigerators and washing machines, for which only the doors and motors were packaged separately. Other boxes opened contained fans ready to be assembled.
The importers are claiming the Customs officials are acting out of a conflict of interests and ignorance of Law 28-01.
Customs' technical director said that the importers' practice violates Resolution 2-95 of the World Trade Organization because the goods arrived needing only minimal assembly, and not to be transformed or manufactured as the law provides.
There have been complaints that many of the plants that are set up near the border to take advantage of the tax exemptions granted by law are merely warehouses, not manufacturing centers.
Johnny Bernal, former president of the National Hotel & Restaurant Association, said that the present levels of the US dollar, currently at a rate of less than RD$30 to US$1, are affecting the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Furthermore, Freddy Ortiz, the president of the Association of Remittance Companies (Aderedi), in the same interview with Diario Libre said that the appreciation of the peso is due to the lack of money in circulation, a factor that he says has contributed to a reduced demand for dollars.
Both Bernal and Ortiz believe that the present rate is affecting the ability to compete of those who generate hard currency.
Ortiz called on the monetary authorities to determine the optimal rate and take measures to have the dollar transacted at a competitive price.
He commented that Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu had stated that an ideal exchange rate would be between RD$35 and RD$38 to the US dollar.
Poultry producers will reportedly have more than 14.2 million chickens for December, which will equal about 60 million pounds of white meat, according to the National Council of Farm Production (Conaprope). The body says these numbers will translate into cheaper prices of the popular food product in time for Christmas. Radhames Silverio said that a big plus is the cooler temperatures the country has been experiencing since October. Silverio forecast a 20% increase in production compared to November, when some 11.8 million units were produced.
Furthermore, he expected the abundance to continue into summer. He explained that the fresh temperatures that will prevail into the winter season will stir the birth rate of the chickens, who as a result will gain more weight.
The Financial Times, Europe's prime source of printed economic news, reports on the capital markets in the Dominican Republic and the present restructuring of the economy following the change of government. The article focuses on how prices of the DR's US$1.1 billion in sovereign bonds have rallied as investors show renewed confidence in the country's ability to overhaul its finances and emerge from the economic crisis triggered by the collapse of a large bank in 2003. The Financial Times reporter, Andy Webb-Vidal, quotes Commerzbank Securities analyst Beat Siegenthaler, who expressed his belief that the DR is "in a liquidity rather than a solvency crisis." For the complete report, see http://news.ft.com/cms/s/...
Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso said that the DR would cast its vote for the Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general according to the Central American consensus. The secretary general position has been vacant since former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez resigned in October to answer to charges of corruption in that country. His resignation was effective 15 October, just one month after taking office. The DR had voted in favor of Rodriguez for the post.
Higher Education Minister Ligia Amada Melo says that Dominicans can apply for master or doctoral studies in the sciences offered by the Rockefeller University in New York City. The scholarships will cover US$23,600 a year of tuition. For more information, contact the department of science and technology of the Ministry of Higher Education, Tel. 533-3381, ext 235, 246, 252 or the Department of International Scholarships.
For programs taught at Rockefeller University, see http://www.rockefeller.edu/
Public Health Minister Sabino Baez promised that his department, "even if it is for the first time," would take issue with the death of Maria de los Angeles, who died following a surgical procedure on 1 November, as reported in El Caribe newspaper. He said that the National Bioethics Commission, presided over by lawyer and former judge of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) Aura Celeste Fernandez and gynecologist Miguel Montalvo, would present a report on the case.
Meanwhile, the Dominican College of Medicine (CMD) and the Dominican Society of Plastic Surgeons demanded an exhaustive investigation on Morel's death, which occurred following a liposuction operation at the Centro Medico Bellas Artes in Santo Domingo. The president of the CMD, Waldo Ariel Suero, wants the case to be taken to the judiciary. For this to happen, however, the relatives need to press official charges.
Julio Pena Encarnacion, the president of the Dominican Society of Plastic Surgeons, said that Dr Edgar Contreras, the physician who operated on Morel, has never been a member of that organization. He said that at the end of the 90s, Contreras requested to be admitted, but was denied because he did not meet the requirements. "He did not meet them back then, much less now," he said.
Contreras, for his part, defended his practice by saying he had been operating for 15 years and has a track record of over 2,000 successful operations.
The newspaper presents several cases in which those seeking a body fix have met with fatal consequences. These include Rosanna Altagracia Pena from New Jersey, who was operated on by Edgar Contreras's brother, Juan Francisco Contreras, on 21 June 1998; Dhelmalyz Rivera of Puerto Rico, who died 15 August 1998 following a surgical procedure at the hands of Edgar Contreras; and Isabel Vargas, a Dominican living in Puerto Rico, who also died following an operation by Edgar Contreras in April 1999. The newspaper mentions four other lost lives due to plastic surgery in the DR, but does not mention the physicians' names.
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