President Leonel Fernandez is expected to participate in two days of high-level sessions on competitiveness in the tourism sector this coming weekend in Punta Cana. The National Competitiveness Council has organized an International Forum for Tourism Competitiveness, in conjunction with the National Hotel & Restaurant Association and the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development. This is a closed-door event, which is not open to the press or the public, and is aimed at developing a National Tourism Competitiveness Strategy. The event brings together internationally recognized speakers and tourism experts and the conclusions are expected to form part of a national plan for the development of the competitiveness of tourism in the Dominican Republic. The event will take place 10-11 December at the Punta Cana Resort. This is the highest-level tourism event ever to take place in the DR and gathers world travel experts and a small group of movers and shakers from the tourism industry.
On 10 December, Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez will deliver the opening address, followed by Enrique de Marchena Kaluche, president of Asonahores and Andres van der Horst Alvarez, executive director of the National Competitiveness Council.
Discussions are to follow with Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and a former director general of the Bahamas tourism ministry, scheduled to participate in a morning panel discussion on Trends and Realities in the Global Tourism Market, in the context of the Caribbean. Peter Yesawich, chairman of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R), America's leading travel marketing and advertising agency will follow with a presentation on trends in the USA market. Next, Augusto Huescar, head of market intelligence and promotion at the United Nations World Tourism Organization, will speak on trends in the European market.
An afternoon panel will focus on best practice models. Scheduled speakers are Matt McNulty, an Irish former minister of tourism who will comment on the Irish model, where pacts between the public and private sector have been successful; Ruben Dario Rodriguez, advisor to the Mexican Ministry of Infrastructure, Communication and Transport who will speak about public policies and the Mexican case; and German Porras, former Spanish tourism minister who will address public policies and the Spanish case.
In the afternoon a final session will be held with the participation of Simon Suarez, vice president of Coral Hotels & Resorts (Coral by Hilton brand) in the Dominican Republic and former chairman of the Caribbean Hotel Association, Gabriel Escarrer, chairman of Sol Melia Hotels and Alec Sanguinetti, director general and CEO of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA). Frederic Emam Zade, director general of the Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo will provide the closing speech.
On the second day, Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez will speak about the role of the public sector in tourism development; Enrique de Marchena will address tourism as the motorizing Dominican economy and generator of wealth. Moises Pineda, Inter-American Development Bank representative in the Dominican Republic (the IDB is the main sponsor of the National Competitiveness Council program), Abel Matutes, Spanish former minister of foreign affairs and chairman of Fiesta hotels, and Rafael Blanco Canto, vice president Wyndham Viva Resorts will be the commentators. Next follows a talk by Rene Villareal, a world competitiveness expert from Mexico, who will address Systemic Competitiveness and Tourism. Andres van der Horst Alvarez will sum up the conclusions by 11:30 am and President Leonel Fernandez himself is set to deliver the closing address at noon.
For information on the organizers, the National Competitiveness Council, see http://www.cnc.gov.do/
President Leonel Fernandez is expected to provide the international perspective at the ITFlorida's annual Awards Gala and Tech Forum, which is being held at the Walt Disney World Contemporary Resort at Lake Buena Vista, on 14-15 December this year. As reported by the organizers, joining President Fernandez during the two-day event will be US Representatives Connie Mack and Tom Feeney, key technology leaders, and several hundred IT executives and professionals. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, a regular participant in the ITFlorida events, is scheduled to deliver a State of Technology in Florida address. President Fernandez will provide insight into how the Dominican Republic has become an economic growth leader in Latin America, and will detail the many opportunities available to Florida businesses and technology interests. As a state, Florida is the DR's largest trading partner in the United States, and has enjoyed a strong relationship with the country. The organizers are highlighting the fact that this is a particularly unique opportunity as it will be the first time that ITFlorida has hosted an international leader at one of its events. "This is a very exciting opportunity to meet with a head of state to discuss business opportunities in his country," said Matt Doster, executive director of ITFlorida. "And I can't think of a better location in the region to look in, particularly with the US-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Anyone doing business in Latin America needs to hear what President Fernandez has to say." ITFlorida's Annual Awards Gala and Tech Forum will provide state business and technology leaders with a comprehensive medium to recognize the achievements of their peers, discuss current information technology trends, and hear about the latest technology developments around the region.
As from next Monday, the government will begin paying out the yearly "Christmas Bonus", the 13th paycheck of the year. The bonus, which is paid to everyone on the government payroll, including the police and armed forces will cost a total of RD$3.6 billion this year. Another part of the government's largesse, thousands of boxes of food and Christmas goodies to be distributed in poor communities, will total another RD$600 million. Luis Manuel Bonetti, the President's chief of staff made the announcement yesterday. The Presidential Social Plan will begin distribution of the Christmas packages later in the week. According to Bonetti, the head of the Presidential Social Plan Emigdio Sosa has set up nationwide distribution channels for the boxes. Each box will contain, among other things, five pounds of rice, a pound of cooking oil, two pounds of beans, a loaf of Christmas bread, a bottle of wine and another of rum. The information was transmitted to the public during the popular radio talk show "El gobierno de la manana," which was broadcast live from the Presidential Palace. On yesterday's show Bonetti said that the social plan had distributed over 1.2 million food packages that allow up to five persons to be fed, at a cost of RD$1.216 billion.
The United States has increased the Dominican Republic's sugar quota by 21% in the preferential US market. According to Listin Diario, sugar exports are now expected to hit US$100 million in 2006. The increase of 43,000 tons brings the total quota to 247,649 tons. The information was released to the press by Faustino Jimenez, executive director of the Dominican Sugar Institute, INAZUCAR. According to Jimenez, the United States had approved a total sugar quota of 1.226 million tons of crude sugar, but this was increased to 1.498 million tons and the Dominican Republic is assigned 16.69% of the total. The increase will be assigned to local producers in the same proportion that they now export. It should be noted, however, that the current quota for the Dominican Republic is far below the 350, 940 tons that the country enjoyed in 1995. At that time, nonetheless, the country was not able to fulfill the quota because of poor management of the state-owned sugar fields. The 2005-2006 sugar harvest is expected to bring in 619 thousand tons. La Romana, one of the most efficient sugar mills in the world, is assigned 51.28% of the export quota for the US market.
A deal that will provide as many as 12 senators, 78 deputies and 65 mayors for the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) was struck yesterday, after the PLD and the PRSC broke off talks of any political alliance. The young leaders of both parties, Orlando Jorge Mera and Victor Gomez Casanova, told a press conference that the political alliance will have to be approved by party leaders from both sides. What the alliance means is that each party will support the other party's candidates and that they won't compete against each other. The deal is an effort to restore the PRSC to a position of importance and reduce the impact of a theoretical PLD upsurge in the upcoming elections. Neither of the two parties will compete against the other in the elections. Sources within the PRSC told El Caribe that the senate seats were assigned to Johnny Jones in the National District, Victor Gomez Berges in Santo Domingo province, Tony Rivera in La Vega, Victor Garcia Santos in Santiago, Felix Vasquez in Sanchez Ramirez, Amable Aristy Castro in Higuey, and Jose Hazim Frappier in San Pedro de Macoris. The agreement also gives the PRSC the senate seats for Barahona, Salcedo, Pedernales and Santiago Rodriguez. The PRSC political committee was due to study the deal yesterday and today, the party executive will consider it. The PRD executive committee will analyze the proposed pact today.
A total of 1,750 rural locations have received telephone services as part of the second phase of the "Telefonia Rural " project. The RD$200 million project is designed to provide telephone service for the most remote and isolated parts of the country. As part of the announcement, small telephone units were set up all over the Presidential Palace so that visitor could get some idea of the set up in the rural areas. INDOTEL head Jose Rafael Vargas made the announcement on a special edition of the very popular morning talk show "El Gobierno de la manana" that was transmitted from the third floor of the Presidential Palace yesterday morning. Vice President Rafael Alburquerque led the ceremony that launched the new telephone service. The VP made a phone call to the village of Mucha Agua in San Cristobal province to put the system into use. The system uses a wireless setup that combines cellular systems with the internet and allows local and international calls to get through. Provinces such as La Altagracia (Higuey), Hato Mayor, Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Valverde, Monsenor Nouel and Montecristi were favored with the new system set up by Bec Tel Card, according to El Caribe.
The head of the Customs Office, Miguel Cocco, has announced that the government is going to allow Dominicans resident overseas who are visiting the country for the holiday season to bring US$1500 worth of merchandise into the country duty-free, until 7 January 2006. The announcement was made during a ceremony at the Customs offices at Las Americas International Airport yesterday. The duty-free arrangement is part of Law 9-96 and is applicable at all airports and port facilities in the Dominican Republic. According to the announcement, the US$1,500 does not include an additional US$500 allowance given for personal luggage as usually permitted under the "best international customs." The announcement came as part of the activities surrounding the welcoming of the first travelers to benefit from the application of Law 9-96 for this holiday season. The law even contemplates the usually chaotic baggage situation, and allows luggage to arrive as much as 15 days prior to the passenger's arrival or as many as 30 days after the arrival date.
The government has infrastructure obligations all over the country that amount to RD$75 billion, scheduled to be carried out over the next three years. A total of 74% of the projects are outside of the National District and the province of Santo Domingo. The director of the office that supervises state projects (OISOE), Felix Bautista, said that of the total RD$36 billion would come from external (foreign) sources. The spending includes the Metro project and the water system for the eastern part of Santo Domingo. A total of RD$55 billion will go the provinces. The Executive Branch is planning to finish a total of 1,537 different projects over the next three years. These projects include the aqueduct for Higuey financed by Petrocaribe at a cost of US$140 million. In the south of the country, the projects to be finished include aqueducts for Barahona, Independencia and Baoruco provinces. In the east, the completions of the Coral Highway and the highway between La Romana and San Pedro de Macoris are projected. An interesting point that the OISOE director brought up was the fact that most of the projects will be supervised by outside agencies, contracted for this purpose. The projects will be awarded using all the usual methods, including open tenders, private or restricted tenders, and direct awards to specific companies.
While the news of the existence of over one thousand vehicles parked on the country's docksides and impounded because they are over five years old, is not new, the announcement that the Director General of Customs will auction off the vehicles if they are not sent out of the country within 30 days, is. El Caribe says that there are as many as 2,000 of these vehicles currently on the docks. Several senators have asked for special dispensations for the vehicles currently in the country. None of the special deals will be offered to vehicles classified as "salvaged" since the law specifically prohibits these vehicles from entering the country, since they represent a risk to public safety. In today's Hoy, buried in the Sports Section, the Director General of Customs (DGA), Miguel Cocco has placed an advertisment announcing the auctions. The ad says that after a single 30-day period, during which the vehicles may be shipped out of the country, the DGA will proceed to auction the vehicles that have not been shipped. These cars will be valued and cleared through Customs as if they are year 2000 models. Opening bids for the vehicles will start at a 40% above value and Customs charges as a penalty for violating the law in the first place. The note says that none of these facilities will be applied to "salvaged" vehicles. In addition, any vehicle that comes into the country and is over five years old will not be accorded these privileges. The note ends by saying that the DGA takes full responsibility for this measure since it recognizes that it is a big blow to many household budgets.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito announced yesterday that he was sending the files relating to the alleged fraud at the Naval Yard in Las Calderas, Bani, to the DEPRECO office. The case involves some RD$232 million and came to light during an audit by the General Accounting Office. Dominguez Brito warned that if DEPRECO can prove the irregularities, the Justice Department would submit the case to the courts. The accusations are against three companies, CIRAMAR, S.A., CIRAMAR International Trading and ANABALCA who supposed acted in collusion with Naval officials regarding a contract to refurbish and repair the Floating Dock DF-1. In paid spaces in most of today's press, company representatives allege that the audit was poorly done. The statement from the "Astilleros Navales Bahia Las Calderas, C. x A." ANABALCA, says that they are in "complete disagreement and that they reject the "unfortunate, precipitated and unjust decision..." The companies go so far as to say that the audit would not stand up to "the most basic professional scrutiny" and, in fact, it had been preceded by another audit that was highly questionable and that led to firings within the GAO. They promised to go to the courts to have the accusations dropped.
Last night the Azucareros from La Romana shut out the Leones de Escogido 2-0, with outstanding pitching from Edison Volquez who allowed just three hits over five innings. With the victory, the Azucareros have extended their winning streak to four games and displaced the Leones from third spot in the standings. In other action the Tigres de Licey defeated the Gigantes del Cibao by the narrowest of margins, 2 - 1. Felix Diaz pitched six innings of brilliant baseball, allowing just one run as he scattered seven hits over the six inning stretch.
In a rain-delayed game the Aguilas del Cibao beat up on the Estrellas Orientales, 10 - 3. The game ended in the wee hours of this morning after rains delayed the game several times. Willy Mo Pena, a young Cincinnati Reds player, was once again the star, going 3-4 with four runs-batted-in. With the victory, the Aguilas and the Tigres maintain their first place tie.
Standings
| TEAM | GAMES | Won - Lost | Games behind |
| Aguilas | 38 | 22 - 16 | -0- |
| Licey | 38 | 22 - 16 | -0- |
| Azucareros | 38 | 21 - 17 | 1.0 |
| Escogido | 38 | 20 - 18 | 2.0 |
| Estrellas | 38 | 16 - 22 | 6.0 |
| Gigantes | 38 | 13 - 26 | 9.0 |
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