President Leonel Fernandez is worried about the quantity of firearms in the possession of the civilian population, and has asked his Minister of the Interior and Police, Franklin Almeyda, to start an educational campaign aimed at creating awareness about the implications of possessing a firearm. The President said that he was fully aware of the large number of permit holders who are not able to use their weapons properly. The chief executive also urged the police to eliminate the so-called "exchange of fire" which appears to be a police euphemism for the summary execution of criminals. According to the President, even the worst criminal in the world deserves to be tried in the courts. The President was speaking yesterday evening during his TV program "The Presidential Agenda", after Almeyda related all the cases of children affected by stray bullets. Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito and the new Police Chief, general Bernardo Santana Paez were also on the show, and Dominguez Brito described how drugs, drug trafficking and the fight for drug territory were all related to the violence. With the police chief on his right-hand side, the President reported on a government survey, taken in the barrios of Las Canitas and Gualey, that revealed that the common people do not trust the police, and he added that the Dominican police are more repressive than preventive in their fight against crime. As reported in El Caribe, the President, towards the end of his remarks, emphasized the need to give greater attention to the family, because "after all, it is within the family that human beings begin to develop and to acquire their first values."
The imminent start up of the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement within the next four months has renewed a long time demand from many industries: Their right to buy energy directly from the generators, as stipulated by Law 125-01. As reported in El Caribe, this law grants customers who consume 2 megawatts the right to become "non-regulated" and purchase their energy needs directly from the generators, and not from the distributors like Ede-Sur and Ede-Norte. With this "disconnect" from the distributors, industries can receive huge savings on what, according to El Caribe, is one of the weakest links in the Dominican industrial scene's competitiveness. Because of the financial impact such a stampede of lucrative clients would have on the various distributors, so far, the applicable clause is a "dead letter." However, with the 'zero hour' of the free trade agreement approaching, there has been a renewal of the lobbying needed to get things rolling, and, indeed, some sources are talking about a legal offensive that will enable the industries access to the direct purchase of energy. A former president of the CONEP business association, Celso Marranzini, was quoted as saying that "more than 'regulated clients' the industrialists are clay pigeons for the distributors to shoot at." Without going through the distributors, industrialists would pay just US$0.09 per kilowatt hour, instead of the US$0.23.they are currently paying the distributors. With the dawn of the FTA with the United States the industrialists are under even more pressure to be competitive. As Marranzini said, "the industrial sector is the principal generator of jobs, but it cannot compete with Central America where electricity is just 10? a kilowatt-hour."
Bernardo Vega takes a not-too-optimistic look at the possible consequences of DR-CAFTA in the Dominican Republic, and he starts by looking at Mexico ten years after the NAFTA agreement between Canada, the USA and Mexico went into effect. The historian and economist says that in Mexico studies looked at which sectors benefited and which sectors were hurt by NAFTA, and therefore, a bit of what he calls "futurology" might be beneficial in order to see what the Dominican Republic will be like in ten year's time. Most experts feel that the transformation of Mexico from the 'perfect dictatorship", to use the Mario Vargas Llosa phrase, that was controlled by one party - the PRI - for decades, towards a democracy, is owed, in great part, to the existence of NAFTA. The privatization of state-owned companies, the requirement to hold open bidding on public works projects and government purchases, the decrease in state corruption and the greater transparency all reflect the obligations undertaken with the United States and Canada. Consequently, we can project that in our country, in 2016, the will be a lot less corruption and much more transparency, and, certainly, less contraband. Private American and Central American investments will be much more important than they are now, especially in areas such as banking and insurance. Foreign debt, in stead of being primarily with Spanish and Brazilian banks, will be ever more with American banks, since public works projects will have open bids. American and Central American imports will increase enormously, and it won't make much sense to buy anything in the United States since the same products will be sold here at nearly the same price to the benefit of the consumer. Vega says that the value of the peso will depend on our capacity to export services, since we will increasingly become more of a service-based economy rather than one of primary production, as well as being ever more urbanized. Crime will probably increase and so will illegal migration, just as has occurred in Mexico. And as in Mexico, traditional small-scale agricultural production which is what Dominican campesinos currently engage in will be strongly affected by the import of subsidized products from the United States. Just like Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, we will import rice and beans, onions and garlic and so forth, creating a food dependency that could produce serious problems in cases like the hurricane that just demolished New Orleans. Current shipments of wheat and corn will probably be delayed, creating local shortages. The sugar industry that currently represents less than 1% of GDP will become even less relevant. The rural worker, the campesino, not being able to compete, will migrate to the cities, expanding the poverty belts surrounding the cities. In agriculture, only those large agro-businesses directed towards exports and run by foreigners, will survive. The cost of medicine will increase with the reduction of local products. Vega ends his look into the future with a message of hope.
Only if ALCA becomes a reality, and the DR gets better terms than exist under DR-CAFTA, can traditional agricultural production possibly survive. This could also happen if Europe and the United States were to get together within the next five years and decide to abolish their agricultural subsidies. Geo-politically, our dependence on the United States will increase. Vega says we will be like Puerto Rico, only poorer, and without the escape valves of federal subsidies and unlimited migration to help us.
Amid rumors and serious questioning by many different sectors of the population, the President will announce his plan to save fuel and energy today. According to the Listin Diario, the President plans to re-schedule working hours in several sectors, synchronize stop lights, restrict the sale of gasoline and other fuels on weekends and restrict the circulation of publicos and private vehicles to alternate days. Reactions to the presidential plans have varied. The head of the National Gasoline Retailers Association (ANADEGAS), points out that any plan that tries to reduce gasoline or diesel consumption should start with the government itself, because otherwise it would make no sense to the general population to make a sacrifice. The syndicate leader proposed that the government also increase the refining capacity of the local refinery, which would reduce the size of the petroleum invoice. ANADEGAS also revealed that energy audits carried out in the past reveal that there is a loss of between 35% up to 52% in the industrial sector, which must be reduced if the country wants to reduce oil consumption.
According to Listin Diario, the details of the new energy saving plan are "the best kept secret" ever, with officials just saying that the President would reveal the details later today. Apparently a source has disclosed that restrictions on the use of private vehicles will be limited to the weekends and not Wednesdays and Thursdays as was rumored all last week.
Radhames Segura, the head of the CDEEE, explained in general terms the three main sources of energy consumption in government offices and in the home: Transportation, illumination and air conditioning. Segura also said that with the installation of "smart lights" at different intersections, replacing the more traditional lights, and with the changes in the working day for public transportation vehicles, especially the publicos, the new plan aims to reduce traffic jams during peak hours. The plan will also look at having people go to work at different times and the use of more efficient lighting fixtures.
As Segura pointed out, the question of air conditioning is not just one of whether the consumer can afford to pay the electricity bill, but whether the government can afford to purchase the oil necessary to produce the electricity. Referring to the ANADEGAS suggestion of increasing the capacity of the local refinery, journalists Yanet Beltre and Roberto Gil point out that the Dominican Republic uses 165,000 barrels of oil a day, of which only 50,000 are crude oil and 115,000 are fuels already refined.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, the Dominican government has been pretty successful in fulfilling the requirements of the IMF agreement, and the Central Bank has the reserves that give it the strength to control the quasi-fiscal deficit. This was the opinion of Moises Pineda, the IADB representative in the Dominican Republic. After pointing out that the IADB is not worried because the authorities have been handling the macro-economy well enough, Pineda did say that the people should demand that the government use public funds in an austere and transparent fashion. The IADB official reaffirmed that the current economic crisis is the result of "a large-scale banking fraud", and that the international community is waiting for Dominican justice to act against those involved. Pineda pointed out that the Dominican Republic has entered an important phase in the stabilization process and he urged the authorities to maintain their rhythm and their consensus in their economic policy.
There are more than ten different elements involved in the calculation of the price of a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel. When we read the weekly announcement that sets the price of gasoline, we assume that what we pay for a gallon of gasoline is the simple addition of just five numbers: The parity price of importing the fuel (PPI), taxes and profit margins.
But the prices that create such uproar among car owners is the result of averages and estimates that affect the more than seven elements that are used to calculate the main ingredient in fuel prices, the PPI. This price is established by a formula contained in the regulations that govern the Hydrocarbon Law112-00, in force since 2001. The exchange rate and the PPI are two elements that change on a weekly basis. The other elements are fixed costs or averages provided by the Dominican Refinery (REFIDIMSA). According to Arturo Martinez Moya, an economist and former head of the refinery, the formula the deputy Pelegrin Castillo calls "esoteric" is not all bad. "The problem is who supplies the data, because the purchase of fuels is not supervised and nobody knows why at times, with existing contracts, purchases are made on the spot market where it is more expensive. The main weakness is that there is no transparency in the process." The price itself is derived from the Platts Index that averages the highs and lows of the first three days of the week in the Gulf Coast market where the reference point is West Texas Intermediate. The Hydrocarbon Law specifies that the price to be used for the PPI is the Platts index for the previous week. Added to this is the calculation made by the Central Bank on the exchange rate. The Reserve Bank purchases 30% of the necessary dollars from the prices of the commercial banks and 70% from the exchange agencies at a rate calculated by the CB during the first three days of the week. The law also specifies that the government is to receive a tax on each gallon of fuel sold according to the Consumer Price Index that is published by the Central Bank every two months. In 2000, premium gasoline paid RD$18 pesos per gallon. Today the tax isRD$38.44, just over 30% of the price of a gallon of fuel.
The formula is set out like this: FOB + FT + SM + CB + OC + CMT + GAL.
FOB is the price of the Platts Index for the previous week. FT is the freight charges which are US$1.76 per barrel. SM is marine insurance. CB represents the costs associated with banking transactions (exchange commission, letters of credit etc). Currently it is RD$9.00 per barrel. CMT is the cost of handling the petroleum at the terminal, and is now RD$27.07 per barrel. GAL is the RD$020 commission required by the law for most fuels and RD$4.00 for propane. To the PPI the officials add the profit margins of the distributor (Esso, Texaco, Isla, etc.) the retailer and the transporter. These costs, RD$3.71, RD$8.00, RD$2.25, go directly to the consumer.
In the barrios of Guananito, El Eden and Novillero, all located near Villa Altagracia, Saturday was not just any day. Troops from the Police, the Ministry of the Environment and officials of the District Attorney's office arrived to evict 200 families who had built shacks in the median of the Duarte Highway. The Environment Ministry wants to create an ecological belt, since many of the houses affect the Novillero hill, an area considered to be of environmental importance. Francisco Dominguez Brito, the Attorney General, sent a note to Listin Diario saying that the move was to reduce the crime rate in the area as part of the Democratic Security Plan being proposed by President Fernandez, since most of the houses were unoccupied and were used by gangs to commit their crimes. There were several incidents and tear gas was used by some of the army troops.
Nonetheless, the people returned on Sunday, and swore that "over their dead bodies would they leave the place." People who had been evicted showed a decree by former President Hipolito Mejia that gave them their lands. They blamed the PLD authorities for their problems. Using cardboard, tin and some of the wood strewn about, the 75 families set about fixing up a place to sleep. Campesino associations such as Hermogenes Popa and
La Nueva Esperanza, led by Milagros Mejia and Sixto Emiliano threatened to take the fight to the last resort and urged the government to start digging a common grave like they did for the Haitians in 1937. Human Rights activist Virgilio Almanzar told Listin Diario that the Human Rights Committee would hold a rally on Wednesday to prepare for the defense of the neighborhood. Almanzar dared the Justice Department to prove that the community was full of criminals. Many of the people had been in the area since 1986.
The Dominican Republic is not well known by those who make important investment decisions around the world. This is why the Center for Exports and Investment (CEI-DR) is trying to develop a plan to promote the DR trademark. CEI-DR head Eddy Martinez Manzueta is trying to get as much input as he can from the different business and social sectors of the Dominican Republic. Speaking at the Economic Encounter at Hoy newspaper, Martinez and his staff told the reporters that the idea is to project an image of the Dominican Republic that shows the capacity of the nation in diverse areas. He emphasized exports of cigars, bananas, beer and rum as just a few of the items that are making "Made in the Dominican Republic" a better-known trademark.
From the time that one enters the territory of what is popularly called "Moca" visitors realize that they have entered the richest lands in the Dominican Republic. The deep, black soil grows food for the entire nation and supplies three of the principal proteins consumed in the daily diet of most Dominicans: Eggs, poultry and pork. Foodstuffs from Espaillat province are famous all the way to New York City, and yucca, plantains, coffee, avocados, sweet potatoes, oranges, and mangos are part of the daily harvest. According to the Agro-Business Board (JAD), Moca supplies 65% of national pork production, 72% of national egg production is in the province and 17% of broilers are from Espaillat.
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