President Leonel Fernandez led the meeting organized by the Dominican Association of Free Zones on Monday to discuss a proposal for the recovery of the "Free Zones Today and their Competitive Re-Launching towards the Future," presented by Rene Villareal, consultant to the National Competitiveness Council (CNC). Villareal proposed that companies nationwide be given duty free treatment when manufacturing apparel or footwear. Vice President Rafael Alburquerque and the economic cabinet almost in full was present to hear the reality from free zone business representatives. At the closing, President Leonel Fernandez appointed a commission lead by Danilo Medina to come up with an action plan to be implemented in a month's time. The closed-door event was held at Santiago's Hotel Gran Almirante. The meeting is part of the sector's strategy for preparing for the DR-CAFTA treaty. Dominican free zones exports have been declining, and the proposal seeks to find ways to turn the downward trend around.
The Dominican Republic faces the challenge of curtailing the slipping market share of exports among DR-CAFTA signatory countries, writes Mario Mendez in an analysis in yesterday's Hoy newspaper. He says that from a 41.8% market share in 1989, the country has slid down to a 24.9% market share, according to June 2006 data from the United States International Trade Commission. In 1989 Dominican exports amounted to US$1.63 billion, of a total of US$3.91 billion in the region. By 2004, Dominican exports had increased to US$3.29 billion, but total trade by DR-CAFTA countries had increased to US$17.42 billion. "That is, while DR exports grew by 101.4% during this period, the total exports of all signatory countries increased by 345%," he writes. He said that the average share of Dominican exports to the US was 30.9%, which is below the 40% the country had maintained until 1991.
The USITC figures rank the Dominican Republic as the eighth largest exporter to the US and the 6th largest importer, after Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia.
Today, DR-CAFTA country trade totals US$32.4 billion, or 4% of the total US trade with the Western Hemisphere.
Dominican exports outside of free zone parks were up by 25.5% in the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2005. According to the government export promotion agency CEI-RD, Dominican exports amounted to US$691 million from January to June 2006, compared to US$551 million for the same period last year. Non-traditional exports were up by 24.25%, going from US$270.38 million to US$335.94 million in 2006. Agricultural exports were up by 18%, with exports of US$65 million for the first half of the year, compared to US$55 million for Jan-June 2005. Ferronickel exports increased from US$183.26 million in 2005 to US$246.26 million for the first half of 2006. Agribusiness exports (cigars, cocoa, coconut milk, seasonings) were up by 25.6%, going from US$51.6 million in the first half of 2005 to US$64.9 million for the first half of 2006. Industrial product exports (steel bars, rum, beer, cement, plastics, fertilizers, zinc sheets and scrap iron and junk) totaled US$185 million, up by 25% from last year.
The government is investing RD$122.5 million for the electricity system in the rural areas of Puerto Plata and Santiago provinces. The investment is being made through the Dominican Corporation of State-Owned Electrical Companies (CDEEE), according to a report in Diario Libre. CDEEE Administrator Radhames Segura said that the government's goal is ambitious and would be fulfilled as it becomes possible.
Governor Francis Ramirez, senator Dionis Sanchez and mayor Domingo Ortiz, plus outgoing mayor Jacobo Feliz Terrero representing Pedernales, the westernmost city in the DR, gathered to join the National Competitiveness Council's national tourism cluster movement in a formal ceremony on Friday, 1 September. Also present were deputy Environment Minister Jose Manuel Mateo and deputy Tourism Minister Jose Santana. The Cluster is pushing will be for a sustainable tourism model for the province. The National Competitiveness program will fund the Cluster's first programs with a donation of RD$4,275,000. The province of Pedernales includes the Jaragua and Sierra de Bahoruco national parks. The region has been moving ahead since 2003 with the support of the Spanish International Development Agency's Araucaria Project that has assisted the province in preparing a development strategy. Speaking at the event, Marino Jose Vilomar, president of the Cluster, advocated a new tourism development model for Pedernales. "We want to be the leading actors of the tourism development of the province, not to be cast aside," he said at the event. He called for a tourism model in which the natural resources may not be depleted by short-term visions and expectations, local or foreign, but cared for, while being exploited with respect to the environment, and where the people of Pedernales can participate with dignity. "We hope that by now those who are insatiable have shame on their faces and put a stop to the constant campaign that seeks to confuse the poor telling them that their future and that of their families depends on the mutilation of our parks. The Cluster backs the Ministry of Environment proposal to develop tourism lodging outside the Bahia de las Aguilas protected area. As part of the preliminary work of the Pedernales community, they have already branded their product.
See http://www.pedernales.com
The government proposal to emit internal bonds in order to re-capitalize the Central Bank and reduce its deficit would make a new tax reform necessary, because the funds to be paid out as interest have to be provided for. Diario Libre reports that the Central Bank currently has certificates worth over RD$161 billion and rising, because it needs to pay the interest they generate every year - a sum of approximately RD$28 billion. The yearly interest payment is what is known as the "quasi-fiscal deficit" and in order to pay it, the Central Bank has been emitting new certificates. The government would have to transfer this amount to stop and reduce the stock of certificates. Last week, Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu announced that the government would be issuing internal bonds, to transfer them to the Bank and pay interest on them. Those interests will compensate the quasi-fiscal deficit generated by the stock of certificates every year and would prevent it from continuing to grow. According to economist and business consultant Jose Luis de Ramon, the government would have to apply a new tax reform that guaranteed the resources to pay the interests. He regrets the fact that the Dominican people will have to pay the cost of this quasi-fiscal deficit through more taxes. The head of the PRD's economic team, Arturo Martinez Moya believes that tax reform could be lower if the government adopts a policy of saving at least RD$15 billion annually. That way the reform would only have to generate a further RD$10 or RS$13 billion. Former Central Bank Governor and PRSC leader Luis Toral believes that the proposal would only contribute to increasing the taxes paid by Dominicans and increase the country's debt.
According to the Director of the Presidential Information Technology Office, Domingo Tavarez, the public services call center recently opened by the government has had a positive impact on the public. Diario Libre reports that the project, which began last Wednesday, has already received some 47,000 calls.
According to a report in El Caribe, the center is receiving between 1,500 and 2,000 calls per hour, the majority inquiring about procedures for obtaining passports.
The special commission appointed to select candidates for the post of Ombudsman will call for public hearings, hold several forums, and contact representatives of international organizations related to the issue, as well as Ombudsmen from other nations. Diario Libre reports that the commission will re-evaluate the work done until now and will then call on all sectors of society to propose candidates. Commission president and PLD deputy Julio Horton explained that the idea is that all society should know its rights in depth, and understand the role of Ombudsman and how important this juridical-constitutional figure will be in the strengthening of democracy and institutionalism in the country. The special commission will meet in the Chamber of Deputies' Norge Botello Hall at 5:00pm.
New judges will have to know English and French as well as Spanish, according to Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) president Jorge Subero Isa. He said that proficiency in both languages would be obligatory as from this year. Aspiring judges will also have to go through a two-year study and training period. Diario Libre reports that Subero made these comments during a swearing-in ceremony for a group of new Justices of the Peace.
Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez has announced an audit of the Senate, and this is the reason he is giving for not referring to administrative matters for the moment. He said that this would involve a complete evaluation of the Senate's financial situation when it changed hands last month. The financial team has hired a company, whose name was not disclosed, to perform the audit, according to Diario Libre.
In a contribution to yesterday's Hoy newspaper, news commentator and former judge Carmen Imbert Brugal wrote about the curious case of new San Pedro de Macoris province senator, Alejandro Williams. Apparently, when traveling through Las Americas International Airport on his way to New York recently, the senator refused to go through the X-ray machine, saying that he was a senator. "I am going to go wherever I feel like" ("voy a pasar por donde me venga en gana"), he told the astonished migration employee, according to Carmen Imbert.
She points out that this is a "multicultural senator" we are dealing with, and goes on to mention another interesting anecdote. On another occasion, in the same Migration Department, Williams was asked to present his ID and voting card (cedula). His shares a name with another person who is banned from leaving the country, and the Migration inspector wanted to confirm identities. The senator promptly told the inspector that he did not have the document. Imbert explains that he told the inspector that he does not need such a document because he is a US citizen.
But, she reports, his confession complicates matters. "The Dominican authorities could have a serious problem with the US government if they harass one of their citizens," she says. But then she remembers that to be elected senator, one has to be Dominican. "We presume that senator Williams is, then why doesn't he have a cedula?" she asks. She wonders how he was able to register his candidacy? How did he vote? Does he pay taxes? What is his status here? "What document does he have in order to do what he feels like?" she wonders.
Former Central Bank governor and ambassador in Washington, DC, Carlos Despradel, tells the frustrating story of his own son, Roberto Despradel who recently purchased a plot in the Portillo area in Samana, only to find that the Spanish hotel company that purchased the adjacent Portillo Beach Resort will be locating their power plant to service the expansions they are making at the property right next to his land. Despradel writes in El Caribe on the occasion of recent statements by the Spanish ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Almudena Mazarrasa who complained about juridical security problems Spanish investors have confronted in the country. He points out the detail that the Las Terrenas municipal council had denied the Spanish hotel company a permit to build the power plants, because this would affect the tranquility of prior investors in vacation homes in the area. But the construction continues nonetheless. He says that to make matters worse, the Ministry of Environment has also denied the corresponding permits for building the power plant, but the Spanish company has ignored the government department's decision. "It appears that the investor's advisors have told him that in our country one does not have to heed the authorities, and that once the work is completed, no one will oblige them to retract," he writes.
"These are some of the same foreign investors, probably, that are pressing their embassies here to denounce the fact that there is no juridical security here. Such irony," he comments.
The Commonwealth Round Table in the Dominican Republic is organizing a workshop on business opportunities between Australia and the Dominican Republic. The workshop is scheduled for Monday, 18 September and will take place at the Hotel Santo Domingo. It is sponsored by the Round Table, the Dominican Association of Exporters (Adoexpo), the Dominican Agribusiness Council (JAD) and the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce and Mining Chamber of Commerce of the DR. Paul Martins, Australia's Senior Trade Commissioner for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is coming to make a presentation. To take part, contact Fernando Gonzalez Nicolas at fgonzalez@cccdr.com
Superintendent of Banks Rafael Camilo said yesterday that he had no knowledge of any purchasing operation of Republic Bank's personal and credit card banking services by Banco BHD, according to a report in Diario Libre. "These are private banks and if they are holding any negotiations of that sort, they will inform the Superintendence of Banks at the right moment" stated Camilo. However, Clave Digital is confirming that there has been a transaction between the two banks and reports that Camilo had confirmed this. The operation is pending ratification by the Monetary Board. Republic Bank would keep its corporate division. Citibank recently sold its personal and credit card division to Scotiabank.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.