The government plans to invest between US$50 and US$100 million in the construction of the Santo Domingo Metro over the next year, according to Presidential Technical Secretary Temistocles Montas who was speaking in the presence of Customs Director Miguel Cocco and Tax Department Director Juan Hernandez. The first line of the Metro will begin to be built next week between Villa Mella and Centro de los Heroes. According to a report in Hoy, Montas explained that this year's budget had allocated RD$700 million to exploratory studies for this project. Next year's budget, which will be submitted to Congress during the second half of November, allocates some US$100 million to the Metro, though he explains it could end up being less. Montas said that if the project costs more it would obviously need additional financing. He understands that the tender process is being developed and in the process, companies wanting to bid must include financing options for the project.
According to the president of Santo Domingo Re-Development, Eulogio Santaella, soil extracted for the construction of the Metro could be used as landfill for the artificial island, as reported in Diario Libre. The project proposes the extension of the city of Santo Domingo towards the sea, from Winston Churchill Avenue to the breakwater near the obelisk on the corner of Angel Guerrero and George Washington Avenue with a land extension of no less than one million square meters. A new road will join the island with the southern part of Santo Domingo. Also projected are the filling and development of the Malecon coastline, 68 million cubic meters of dredging, 9 kilometers of covering, a breakwater, an industrial zone, a multi-use port and loading area. Local promoters of the project met yesterday with the President of the Senate Permanent Finance and Contract Commission, Cesar Diaz Filpo, who announced that new public hearings for this project would be held on 16 November 2005. Also present at the meeting were Senators Tommy Duran, Jose Tomas Perez, Fausto Lopez Solis, Miguel Seijas, Pedro A. Luna, and Roberto Rodriguez, as well as Minister without Portfolio Eduardo Selman, who is the government liaison with the project promoters.
Listin Diario reports that Selman assured the lawmakers that the entire southern coast of Santo Domingo will be totally renewed by the project whereas Senator Perez questioned the future responsibility of the Dominican state to provide the construction material to be used as landfill in the project.
An engineer specializing in mega-projects estimates that the minimum time it would take to build the proposed Metro in Santo Domingo would be six years. However, under normal conditions, the time would be eight years and in the case of unforeseen events-such as geological problems during excavations, a natural disaster or financial problems-the project could take as long as ten years. Alex Rodriguez de Marchena believes that the latter is most likely, as in this country even small projects get stopped frequently due to lack of funds. Diario Libre reports that in contrast, an elevated monorail system along 27 de Febrero Avenue with a network of rings to link it with other avenues could be built in just two years and three months as it would use large-scale prefabricated beams, and construction work could take place concurrently in different locations.
During the groundbreaking ceremony of "Torres Atiemar" to be built with Spanish investment in Santo Domingo's La Esperilla neighborhood, President Leonel Fernandez expressed his satisfaction with the growth of the construction industry during the current administration, and commented that it was due to the confidence in the stability the DR has acquired. As an example of this he stated that during the last months 30 high-rise buildings have been built. He said that construction serves as an indicator of whether the economy is moving in the right direction or not.
The General Prosecutor for Environment and Natural Resources, Andres Chalas, is considering pressing charges against those responsible for the gas leak that caused the hospitalization of more than 40 children and adults in Santo Domingo last Monday (see DR1 Daily News 25 October 2005), as reported in Diario Libre. Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa) president Aristides Fernandez Zucco was replaced on Tuesday because of the accident. Chalas explained that he is waiting for a report being prepared by the Department of Environmental Management to determine whether legal action should be taken.
Listin Diario reports that Regulations and Systems (Digenor) Director Julio Santana, stated that preliminary investigations have determined that there was negligence involved in Monday's gas leak. There was no supervision of the management of the substance and it appears that it was negligence on the part of technicians manipulating the container with ethyl mercaptan that caused the problem. He recommended an inspection not only at Refidomsa, but also at other plants such as Coastal, in San Pedro de Macoris, Azua and other locations where the substance is used. He also favors legal action against the technicians responsible and operations managers at Refidomsa as this is a case of national security. Santana explained that the toxic gas is not managed adequately at Refidomsa since the tank should be connected to the ground; filtration of water should be avoided inside the tank whereas the company explained it had been washed with water. Other considerations are that air should be extracted from the system before pumping in the gas and cannot be allowed back inside the container, which must be kept distant from ignition sources, including electrical wiring, and that was not complied with.
Eduardo Rodriguez, the new President of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, has stated that his main goal as an individual and public official is to get the Petro-Caribbean Agreement signed between the DR and Venezuela, into operation. According to Diario Libre, he let it be known that his modus operandi would be totally different to the previous management. He understands that official government spokespersons in terms of petroleum and fuel are those instructed by law: Industry and Commerce deals with the fuel market, quality and prices; the government's economic team deals with economic factors; and the Secretary of the Presidency deals with matters of a social or political nature; the President of Refidomsa will work internally. Rodriguez was appointed on Tuesday, replacing Aristides Fernandez Zucco, who was fired after a gas leak spread over Santo Domingo on Monday (see DR1 25 October 2005).
No agreement was reached during a meeting between top PRD representatives and the government's economic team regarding the proposed tax reform bill in Congress. The bill is meant to identify new sources for the collection of more than RD$30 billion that the government will stop receiving when DR-CAFTA comes into effect on 1 January 2006. Listin Diario reports that the PRD members are insisting that the taxes in the proposed reform are unnecessary whereas the government technicians insist that they are unavoidable to compensate for the abolition of the exchange rate commission and tariffs. The meeting was held at Hotel El Embajador and was attended by PRD President Rafael Alburquerque, Secretary General Orlando Jorge Mera, and Arturo Martinez Moya, Andres Dahuajre and Jaime Aristy for the PRD. The government was represented by Presidency Technical Secretary Temistocles Montas, Customs Director Miguel Cocco, and Tax Department Director Juan Hernandez. They agreed to hold another meeting as the PRD representatives said they had to consult with the party commissions before taking a definite decision.
According to Hoy, Montas stated that if the tax reform bill is truncated, the reduction of the government's income may affect the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He explained that lawmakers are proposing modifications to the bill that would reduce collections by RD$7 billion of the expected RD$32 billion.
Puerto Rican Secretary of Economic Development, Jorge Silva-Puras believes that island's trade with the DR would increase by more than US$3 billion as soon as DR-CAFTA comes into effect on 1 January 2006. According to Listin Diario, Silva-Puras spoke after visiting the Senate together with Puerto Rican officials and lawmakers. He said that trade between the DR and PR is now worth around US$1.4 billion and that after the treaty comes into effect the two countries will lead the most powerful economy in the Caribbean region.
The rising demand for judicial services has motivated the Supreme Court of Justice to increase all the Judicial Branch departments' working schedule. According to Listin Diario, judicial services will be offered from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm starting from Monday, 31 October 2005, a one-hour increase from the previous schedule, which lasted until 3:30 pm. The measure is meant to offer a more efficient judicial service to the public and faster processing of cases being tried in different courts around the country. Recently, the Attorney General Department had taken the same decision to increase working hours for its employees. Neither institution has indicated increases in salary for the extra time required.
Cementos Dominicanos (Domicen), the largest and most modern Portland cement and clinker plant in the Caribbean region, built at a cost of over US$113.5 million by Italian and Dominican investors, was inaugurated yesterday by President Leonel Fernandez in Sabana Grande de Palenque, San Cristobal Province. Listin Diario reports that the plant has a production capacity of one million metric tons of cement per year and 850,000 metric tons of clinker per year. It will create approximately 250 direct jobs and will have local management. Domicen President Pasquale Colaiacovo and Vice President Osvaldo Oller, as well as Carlo Colaiacovo, member of the Board of Directors, spoke during the ceremony. Present at the event were Administrative Secretary of the Presidency Luis Manuel Bonnetti; Public Works Minister Freddy Perez; Labor Minister Jose Ramon Fadul; Industry and Commerce Minister Francisco Javier Garcia; as well as the Italian Ambassador to the DR Giorgio Sfara, among other personalities.
El Caribe indicates that Domicen's production will represent one-third of the demand in the DR and that will cause imports to decrease by 50%. Oller said that the plant will offer competitive prices and expects that the new competition will cause market prices to drop by between 10% and 20%. The plant will use equipment brought from China, Europe and the US.
Last night, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez said he had decided to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Classic Championship next March, and that this only needs to be confirmed by Major League Commissioner Bud Selig. "I have told Selig and he knows where I stand: one hundred percent Dominican", said Rodriguez, according to an Associated Press cable. A-Rod was born in the US but his parents are Dominican. Selig had said that he would have the last word about which country A-Rod would play for.
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