On his official visit to the United States, President Leonel Fernandez showed up on time, sometimes even early, to most of his scheduled meetings in Washington, DC. The President did arrive late to a meeting with IMF president Rodrigo Rato. Listin Diario reports that the meeting was scheduled for 2:30 last Tuesday, and President Fernandez showed up 10 minutes late for the meeting, leaving Rato waiting in the hallway. The President was on time for the rest of his meetings and successfully completed his trip to the United States. Fernandez's punctual arrivals made the news because the President has a reputation for being late for meetings in his own country. The President made a stopover in Coral Gables, Florida on Friday to receive the "Bravo Award" from Latin Trade magazine, making him the first leader to have won the award twice, and then returned to the country on Sunday, two hours before his scheduled arrival time of 5pm.
Economist and director of the Economic and Development Foundation Jaime Aristy Escuder is quoted in Hoy newspaper as saying that President Leonel Fernandez is a prisoner of the PLD party's leadership, the Political Committee, and that this is preventing him from making major changes or the necessary moves to help the population. Aristy points out that the government is receiving RD$56 million more in contributions than two years ago, but that the money is being spent on non-essential projects like the Santo Domingo Metro. Aristy also says that the proposed constitutional reform doesn't make sense to 99% of Dominicans. The economist defended the middle class by saying that the fiscal reform will heavily affect them, and called on the President to change his policies and focus more of his attention on education and health. He says that the proposed fiscal reform would ruin the country, and that the people cannot handle any more taxes. Finally, Aristy says that the announced 10.3% growth of the Dominican economy is not possible, and that the government pushes away foreign investment with such acts, such as taxing Verizon US$500 million.
The Presidential announcement that the Dominican people would be undergoing a third tax reform in three years has moved just about everyone to emit an opinion. The Superintendent of Banks, Rafael Camilo, one of President Fernandez's closest advisors, said that the current luxury taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages would be changed to an ad valorum tax. The government official said that basic consumer items would not be affected, referring to medicines, education and health services. He did say that the VAT tax base will be broadened and some income sectors that were formerly exempt, will be taxed. Camilo dismissed rumors to the effect that savings income and credit card transactions would be taxed. The following day, three Catholic bishops from the Cibao Valley came out and said that the poor simply could not cope with any more taxes. Jesus Maria de Jesus Moya, the bishop of San Francisco de Macoris, Tomas Abreu, the former bishop of Mao-Montecristi and Antonio Camilo, the bishop of La Vega all asked the government not to take the easy road to obtaining more income which is taxing commercial and business people. They said that ultimately, the poorest would end up paying the highest price. And then today, Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque came out and defended the new policy, describing the opposition as "political demagogues". Speaking at the launch of the rubella vaccination campaign, he also rejected the idea put forth by the business and industrial sectors that called for a governmental payroll reduction as a way of obtaining more funds. Alburquerque said that the citizenry should not worry about the possible fiscal reform and warned the country not listen to "alarmists", adding that details of the process would be filled in once the President is back in the country. Alburquerque declared that this reform would repair the "mutilated fiscal reform" process carried out by the PRD. Instead of labeling it a fiscal reform the VP preferred to call it "fiscal rectification".
Hoy newspaper columnist Hamlet Hermann is questioning the direction of the government's fiscal policy and cites in his column that willingness to pay off international debt and continue construction of the Metro has left the government with no other option but to continue to tax the public. But why not cut government spending? Hermann says that organizations like the IMF don't care what goes on within the country because the more loans that are taken out, the more pressure those organizations can exert on the country, even if the quality of life decreases. He points out that it is not fair that every RD$3 of taxes is channeled towards paying international debt and that it is unreasonable to still be paying off a US$185 million loan taken out during the Antonio Guzman presidency 20 years ago. Hermann points out that if Norway can cancel unilateral debts taken on by previous governments that were consuming the revenues of nations like Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Peru and Ecuador, then debtor organizations can do the same. Hermann concludes his article by stating that Dominicans should not be paying off these loans while poverty increases, and that they are just as responsible for the culture of corruption that continues to enrich public servants years after they have left office.
The projected budget for the 2007 fiscal year will be RD$240 billion and is based on two plans. The first includes the announced tax reform, and if it is passed, then the budget will be RD$240 billion. The second plan is for a budget of RD$230 billion in case the tax package does not get through Congress. This information was provided to Diario Libre by Luis Hernandez, the head of the National Budget Office. These figures are significantly different from those quoted last week by Guarocuya Feliz, the head of the National Planning Office, ONAPLAN. He had talked about a 10% increase over last year's RD$238 billion budget or, in other words, a budget of RD$260 billion.
There was a political cartoon over the weekend that showed a voice coming from the seat of government and shouting "Health, education and electricity!!! Health education and electricity!!! Health education and electricity!!! Can't you talk about anything else??" The reality is that two of the major newspapers, El Caribe and Diario Libre feature important stories on electricity. El Caribe reports that 69% of CDEEE spending goes towards its payroll expenses. Diario Libre reports that 44% of all the energy bought by the distributors is lost. While the headlines from El Caribe might be a bit misleading, the story says that of the RD$625.67 million that the CDEEE received in August, RD$180.95 million went to operating expenses and, of this amount, RD$125.57 million (69.4%) went to pay the employees of the state-run hydroelectric and transmission company. The report goes on to show that the electricity distributors, the EDEs, also appear to be overstocked with employees. All told, the CDEEE and the three EDEs have over 9,000 employees, and the EDEs' payrolls account for almost 35% of their operating expenses.
Diario Libre added insult to injury by reporting how the EDEs lose 44% of all the energy they purchase and charge their clients very high prices for the electricity that they do provide. According to the paper, the EDEs are "operating well below the minimum parameters set for an electricity company to operate." Even with the high cost of generation, the EDEs maintain a margin of 50%. This is the difference between what the EDEs pay for electricity and what they charge their clients for the electricity delivered. Data from the Electricity Superintendence show that the EDEs buy electricity at US$0.11 k/hr and they sell the energy at an "average" price of US$0.21 k/hr. Even so, the distributors are registering huge losses that no renegotiation can solve. The problem is with the management, according to the paper. According to the "Energy Monitor" document put out by the Ministry for Technical Affairs, during the first semester of this year, the EDEs barely invoiced 64.1% of the energy that they had purchased from the generators. Right off the bat, they are losing 35.9%. Adding further insult to injury, the EDEs only averaged a collection rate of 87%, which means that they lost an additional 13%. This 44.5% loss cannot be rectified through any sort of renegotiation.
Interior and Police Minister Franklyn Almeyda has announced that he will ask President Fernandez to relax the decrees limiting the sale of alcoholic beverages over the Christmas period. According to Almeyda the reduction of alcohol sales, along with increased police activity has reduced the amount of violence during the period since the alcohol decree was passed. Almeyda was quoted in El Caribe as saying that the PRD party lacks the fundamental elements to properly run the country, and that the current PLD government has had to work extremely hard to "correct the disorder left by the previous government".
Hans Dannenberg Castellanos is the new Dominican ambassador in Vietnam after presenting his credentials on Wednesday, 25 October in Hanoi. During the 46-minute special meeting, Vietnamese President Triet emphasized the independent approach, open and focused on promoting world peace, stability and regional development of the world carried out by the Vietnamese government. He confirmed that he would visit the DR in the first quarter of 2007.
The decision to formalize relations was reached when President Leonel Fernandez met with Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet during the Non-Alligned Nations Movement summit in Havana in mid September.
Ambassador Dannenberg, who is also ambassador to India, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei, said that the first agreements would focus on cultural exchanges. A first exhibition on Vietnam is planned for Santo Domingo on 19 May 2007. A Vietnamese cinema season is also planned, including the Story of Pao, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Dannenberg said he was looking forward to the day when merengue and bachata is heard in Vietnam.
Eneida Lopez de Contreras, General Consul to Mexico from the Dominican Republic, has been named head of the consular corps in Mexico. It is the first time a Dominican has been chosen for the position. The consular corps is a group made up of consuls from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Lopez de Contreras is quoted in El Caribe as saying that she will try to highlight her country's name and will try to extend the relationships between the DR, Mexico and all other member nations.
Dominican exports to Mexico are growing at an impressive rate, reaching US$100 million in 2005. Over the last five years, according to Marco Antonio Sanchez, they have grown by #0%. Sanchez, the head of the Dominican-Mexican Chamber of Commerce, told Hoy editorial executives that the Dominican Republic imported US$215 million, excluding petroleum products. Recent reports indicate that Dominican exports have grown considerably in 2006. Mexico has over one hundred million inhabitants, and imports textiles, larimar, rum, leather, tobacco and computer circuits from the Dominican Republic. The delegation that accompanied Sanchez to the meeting included officials from the ministry of economy, the trade attache from the Mexican embassy, and one of the directors from Trade Point Mexico.
The cities of Santiago, La Vega, Bonao, La Romana and the area between Santo Domingo and Haina are the most polluted in the Dominican Republic. This is how they appear on the recently developed map issued by the Environment Ministry. The high levels of pollution are attributed to heavy industrial concentration, the massive use of generating equipment and high vehicular circulation. Juan Ditren, the director of the Environmental Quality Department at the ministry said that the map was based on 2003 data, and that despite steps that have been taken, the results for 2006 show the same geographical concentrations of pollution. The most polluted river basins are the Ozama, the Yuna and the Yaque del Norte. Most of the river pollution is due to industrial waste, and the ministry identified several of the largest offenders.
http://www.diariolibre.com/app/article.aspx?id=84103
The Ministry of Public Health has launched a campaign to vaccinate everyone between the ages of 7 and 39 against German measles (rubella). According to Listin Diario, 5,100,000 people are in that demographic in the DR. The campaign begins today and will run through 2 December. About 40,000 health workers are taking part, and the goal is to eradicate the disease by the year 2010.The vaccines are free to all who request them. German measles is the cause of thousands of birth defects in the Dominican Republic each year, including deafness, blindness and heart problems as a result of mothers contracting the disease during pregnancy.
Radio Santa Maria, originally a small AM radio station run by Jesuits in la Vega, and what is now both a powerful AM and FM station, has hit the half century mark. The station, known for its distance-learning programs, has enabled 93,000 people to get an eighth grade certificate. Most of the Dominican council of Bishops attended the mass celebrating the anniversary. The station started operations with an antenna in Santo Cerro, La Vega in October 1956. Its opening was blessed by Pope Pius XII. Currently, father Eduardo Garcia Tamayo says that the station has three main focuses. The first is reaching young people through their FM station, with the idea of teaching them values and providing a space for their questions. In the second place, the station is developing a high school distance-learning program, and finally, they are working on combining radio with new technologies, and have recently opened an Internet room.
The "Sur Futuro" Foundation held its first graduation of its program called "Go in-Connected". The program graduated 81 young persons trained in information technology. They were trained by staff from INFOTEP and the Azua Polytechnic School. According to Melba Segura de Grullon, the foundation's president, this training is not just "to add another sheet to their files, but rather to learn the basics of being a young competitive person in this globalized world, ready to enter the labor market". The program is funded by local and international grants, and runs seven-month training courses in information technology for young people from the deprived areas of the southwest of the country.
The Dominican and Puerto Rican flags that were flown to space on a NASA flight will be displayed in honor of the two Latino communities at Hostos Community College on Grand Avenue in the Bronx, New York. During a ceremony commemorating the act, Congressman Jose Serrano and Astronaut Michael J. Massimino presented the college with the flags. According to Hoy newspaper, Senator Serrano explained that he wanted to pay tribute to the Dominican and Puerto Rican communities in the United States and that sending the flags to space was a great way to do so. He said he wanted to give Hostos College the flags in homage to a school named after a Puerto Rican who worked and is buried in Santo Domingo. The Dominican consul in New York, Marcos Montilla, was present at the ceremony.
DR1 News wishes to remind its readers that Daylight-Saving Time ended in the United States over the weekend. The time in the DR remains the same all year round.
All clocks in the US were put back one hour. The Dominican Republic is now one hour ahead of New York, Miami and Boston. When it's 8am in Santo Domingo, it is just 7am in the Eastern Time Zone, and 4am in Los Angeles. The Dominican Republic is currently in the same time zone as Atlantic Canada.
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