President Leonel Fernandez visited the naval yards at Las Calderas, near the southwestern city of Bani yesterday and came away impressed with the operations there. So much so, in fact, that he suggested that the shipyard construct oil tankers to reduce the cost of shipping fuel to the Dominican Refinery. The President made the visit to witness the launch of two new "fast ships" built in the yard with Dominican and Dutch technicians. The Hamal (LR-151) and the Vega (LR-152) are fast rescue ships that will be put to use as drug interdiction vessels. (As a note of interest, all Dominican Navy patrol boats are named after stars and constellations, and larger vessels are named for historical figures such as the tugs Guaroa and Guarionex.) The two new vessels will be particularly handy as they are designed to operate efficiently in shallow waters near the coastline.
More ominously, El Caribe reported that the First Lady tried 17 times to break the champagne bottle on the Hamal's bow, under the embarrassed gaze of the President, and all without success. Fernandez broke the tension, however, saying, "That must be the strongest bottle in the world!" The bottle was finally broken under the guidance of Felipe Canot, the yard's chief of maintenance. El Caribe gleefully noted that when former President Hipolito Mejia launched a vessel back in July, the then-First Lady broke the bottle on her first try.
The State Sugar Council (CEA) has given the Hernandez Paulino construction firm until Monday to return possession of millions of square meters of land to them or else! The construction company has been given two choices: either pay the going price for the land or return it. The CEA executive, Domingo Enrique Martinez is talking about 13 million square meters of land that was acquired at infinitesimally low prices during the PRD administration of Hipolito Mejia. A former senator for La Romana, Martinez said that the company has to return the land, or pay the market price for it. Otherwise, the CEA would use legal procedures to safeguard the state's land. Legal advisor to the Executive Branch, Cesar Pina Toribio said that the CEA did not need to get a presidential decree to re-possess the land. Pina Toribio said, "Simply put, the government just has to use the resources that the law provides for in case these lands were irregularly acquired. The lands in question are located in the El Toro and the El Bonito sections of San Isidro, part of the National District, and were purchased at US$2.00 a square meter.
No child shall be discriminated against or prevented from attending school because of being HIV positive, and an investigation will be carried out within the public school system to see whether there have been any cases of such discrimination. Education Minister Alejandrina German made these remarks as part of the ministerial activities to commemorate World AIDS Day. She told reporters that the ministry was working with teachers and principals on training with relation to awareness and HIV-positive children. The ministry has already adopted the position that no one may be discriminated against within the public school system. Each school also has a guidance counselor or psychologist charged with overseeing sex education and AIDS prevention and awareness programs for the students. "What is most important," said German, "is that these professionals promote love, consideration and solidarity among those people infected with the AIDS virus."
Operation Cowboy has begun to attempt to halt the cattle rustling along the border with Haiti. Supported by six helicopters and a large quantity of all-terrain vehicles, hundreds of soldiers scouted the area along the Haitian frontier looking for drugs, stolen vehicles and rustled cattle. El Caribe reports that Major General Jose Ricardo Estrella and the Tenth Batallion are in charge of the operation. The area around Dajabon has become an area of intense violence with the reported ambush of a UN patrol in Haiti and the murder of a suspected cattle thief by local cattlemen. Rebels and the Haiti government dispute the control of the Customs house in Quanaminthe (Juana Mendez). Local authorities from both sides of the frontier were present at meeting with the chief of the Dominican Army, Ricardo Estrella Fernandez.
"This is not the time for strikes or for salary increases," says Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, who declined to mediate the wage conflict between the Dominican Medical College (CMD) and the Ministry of Public Health. Hoy reports that the CMD has announced another three-day strike of the 147 public hospitals and clinics, as well as those belonging to the Social Security system. During the strike, only emergency care will be given, as well as attention to critically ill patients. The cardinal said that the medical professionals should wait until the country has straightened itself out economically before making their salary demands. He said that now was the time to repair the country, and not to go out on strike or make new wage demands. Lopez Rodriguez said furthermore that the country did not have the money to pay the 100% increase requested by the doctors. At the same time, the Dominican cardinal said that the proposed RD$17 billion allotment of the 2005 budget should be used to better the shameful condition of the country's hospitals and public health facilities.
The sharp appreciation of the peso has benefited the government in that it needs less pesos to pay the foreign debt. But on the other hand, the government is receiving less revenues since imports values have dropped. Hoy newspaper says that the difference in tax collections is due to the fact that in August imports were valued at an exchange rate of RD$50-US$1. Today, these are being valued at RD$30-US$1. In August, the government received RD$10.5 billion in revenues, compared to RD$9.2 billion in September and RD$8.9 billion in October.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are at loggerheads over the Dominican government's decision to not eliminate but rather increase the exchange commission from 10 to 13% of the amount of dollars needed to import anything in hard currency. Hoy reports that the WTO sees the foreign exchange commission as incompatible with binding international agreements. They have also disputed the 2% surcharge on imports and the requirement to put a stamp of origin on cigarettes imported from outside the Dominican Republic. The WTO panel agreed that these dispositions are not in consonance with WTO regulations. Despite the opinion of the WTO, the IMF does not feel that the exchange commission constitutes a restriction on free trade. Honduras took its case against the Dominican Republic to the WTO because the surcharges became cost roadblocks that prevented Honduran-made cigarettes from entering the Dominican market. The WTO board decided that the Dominican Republic had failed in several instances to live up to the GATT agreements. The IMF answered the WTO by saying that exchange commission was legally created by the Central Bank and that although it has changed its collections agency to the Dominican Customs Office, the Central Bank is still the recipient of the money. IMF official Francois Gianviti says that the Central Bank originally charged a legal commission on the sale of hard currency, but now it is paid as a condition for the importation of goods purchased abroad, and as such it is not seen as a restriction to commerce as seen by the IMF.
The president of the Dominican Association of Housing Promoters and Constructors (ACOPROVI), Jose Rodriguez Caceres, told reporters from the Listin Diario that the lower cost of dollars, cheaper hardware materials, and lesser interest rates have not created lower prices on new housing units because of salary increases, bureaucratic red tape and higher taxes. The association leader urged the government to change its policies that govern the fiscal treatment of the housing sector. The Acoprovi president said that there has never been a government policy that favored the housing construction sector. As an example of what is happening, Rodriguez pointed out that while construction material has gone down in price there has been an 82% increase in wages. The price of cement, as an example, has only gone down 40%. Rodriguez Caceres said that there should be some incentives on the fiscal level for people to be able to acquire their own homes. Rodriguez criticized the red tape that complicates housing starts, and suggested grouping institutions dealing with housing permits in one ministry of housing. According to the available data, there is a 700,000-unit deficit in housing in the Dominican Republic. The Central Bank has blamed the slowdown in housing starts on the high interest rates and the high cost of building materials.
The director of the Diario Libre writes the A. M. column this morning and warns the readers of two dilemmas that are facing the Dominican Republic. The country is at a crossroads. A lack of information immobilizes our limbs and makes our brains work on something that apparently does not have a logical and precise solution. But decisions must be taken. The country must decide in the coming days what to do with the Free Trade Agreement and the International Monetary Fund, in spite of the fact that the basic decisions have already been taken. If truth be said, the Free Trade Agreement was not our fault. For whatever reason, the Central American states decided that they should sign such an agreement with the USA. The DR that has an economy that converges with those in Central America, had to get on the wagon. A lot of people might argue that we could wait and see what happened, but the editorialist says, these are the people that think we are the center of the universe (or, as he calls it, the 'belly button'). What was going to happen is what we all know: The industrial free zones would relocate, and when we would have wanted to negotiate, the conditions would be different. Then there is the dilemma of the IMF. We have to sign because we need the resources in order to pay what we owe, and still stay in debt, and after signing, traumatized. Tejada says that when the smoke clears, it is possible that very sensitive sectors of the Dominican economy will be in ruins, and with them, half of the country. There was never a better time for the saying that says: "Trabajando para el ingles" (working for nothing).
D'La Mona Plaza is to be constructed in the middle of the Mona Passage between the island of Hispanola and Puerto Rico, right in the middle of the route used by small craft boats for transferring illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. According to the headline story in the Diario Libre, it does not appear to be a joke. The project envisions a marina, three levels of showers and other hygiene-related facilities, along with emergency medical care services and 242 commercial slots in the mall area. The project is being promoted by the Constructora Internautica del Caribe company, which only has a phone number in the Dominican Republic. Although not promoted as serving the small craft that carry the illegal immigrants towards Puerto Rico, the marina will have facilities to service and repair boats of small and medium size. A recorded message with a strong Puerto Rican accent answers the number listed for more information.
The Department of Customs has authorized its customary tax-free import of gifts for friends and relatives up to US$1,500. Of the total, US$1,000 corresponds to the value of the gifts, and another US$500 allotment is approved for personal use items. The measure benefits Dominican expatriates who have not visited for the past six months. The measure will be in effect for those visiting from 1 December through 7 January.
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