President Leonel Fernandez inaugurated the first annual Dominican Film Festival at the Eduardo Brito Hall at the National Theater yesterday, and commended the works of many artists who have contributed to the Dominican community through cinema. Fernandez was accompanied by his wife Margarita Cedeno, actors Judge Reinhold and Andy Garcia, and Dominican actress Zoe Saldana, among others, during the inaugural event. Fernandez also honored Saldana, Garcia, Alejo Mendez, Luis Llosa and Claudio Chao with special Presidential orders recognizing their achievements in the arts. Andy Garcia said that he was honored to have received the recognition from the President and said that he appreciates the support that the country has given to him throughout his career, adding that some of his best moments have come while in the DR, going back to 1975, when he filmed his first movie here.
The IMF has recommended that the Dominican government increase the ITBIS (VAT) tax from 16 to 18%, tax all bank money withdrawals, and tax almost all goods including fuel, fertilizers, laboratory pharmaceutical acquisitions, books and magazines. The IMF also suggested a 15% tax on money received, 2% on the value of imports, and an increase by 10 to 15% the retention on rentals and the payment on service benefits. Listin Diario reports that the IMF suggests an increase in the tax on alcohol at 20% and a 40% tax on cigarettes and a 1 to 1.5% increase on sumptuary assets. These measures will be implemented in order for the government to collect more than RD$28 billion in 2007.
A part of the IMF agreement, the National Organizer for European Development Funds (ONFED), Presidential Office for Information Technology and Communications (OPTIC), and National Office for Administration and Personnel (ONAP) will all have to be eliminated. Listin Diario writes that their responsibilities will be transferred to the new Planning and Development Ministry, which will be set up after its creation is approved by Congress. The legislation also requires, 180 days after it is submitted to Congress, a bill for the National Statistical System in which municipalities would have to provide information on their investments on a regular basis.
An article published in today's Hoy newspaper says that the DR industrial market's competitiveness has deteriorated over the last six or seven years due to increases in the costs of energy, transitory taxes, and five fiscal reforms that have weighed heavily on the industrial sector. Rafael Alvarez Crespo, president of the Haina Business Association, said that the situation has become critical in the wake of the implementation of DR-CAFTA. Crespo warns that if no solution is found, a large part of the sector will in fact disappear. According to Hoy, 48% of businesses are less profitable than they were five years ago, and 24% remain the same. Yandra Portela, president of the DR Association of Industries (AIRD) says that these declines are in contrast to the increase in profitability in the same sectors in the US, which have increased by 18% in the same five-year period. Portela and many others have pointed to the high cost of electricity as the main reason for this difference. Portela added that DR-CAFTA would provide major challenges because 60% of imported goods will enter the country without tariffs, and that the proposed fiscal reform should have begun long before DR-CAFTA was signed. She concluded by saying that for the DR, competing with the US and the EU would be tough going.
The date set by the Contract Renegotiation Committee has come and gone for the energy distributors to decide whether or not they will renegotiate the Madrid Accord, and only 4 of the 10 energy companies have submitted a response, leaving the process temporarily stalled. Committee coordinator and Dominican Electricity Company (CDEEE) vice president Radhames Segura said that the 6pm deadline came with only four companies, AES Andres, Palamara-La Vega, EGE-Haina and Electric Company of Puerto Plata (CPP) responding, even though they had been given until 12am at the latest to respond. Segura, quoted in El Caribe newspaper, didn't reveal the nature of the responses that were received. The government is giving the energy distributors the option to renegotiate the Madrid Accord, as a way of solving the energy problem, or face a reduction of the energy contracts from 15 years to 3 years.
Diario Libre is reporting that the Department for the Prevention of Administrative Corruption (DEPRECO) will handle the pension theft case that was reported on Tuesday. DEPRECO Director Octavio Lister announced that his office will take control of the case in which staff at the Pensions and Retired Persons Office were caught stealing pensions totaling over RD$50 million. Lister will meet with Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa to discuss the evidence today, and Diario Libre adds that at least eight people are in police custody in connection with the case.
In spite of strong opposition from students and a tense situation on campus, teachers and employees at UASD began a 72-hour work stoppage yesterday at the nation's oldest university as a response to the administration's failure to find a solution to the health insurance issue. Dean Roberto Reyna described the teachers' decision as "irresponsible" and urged them to return to their normal routines so that students wouldn't lose any more school time. The teachers' union gave the state university authorities until yesterday to decide on the issue or face another strike. The teachers' union wants the University to rescind a health insurance contract with ARS Humano, which they feel was not signed with the teachers' interests in mind, and they would like to run their own ARS insurance. Dean Reyna has responded by saying that teachers should allow for ARS Humano's 90-day grace period to end, after which negotiations can continue, according to Diario Libre. Regardless of the outcome, UASD students might face a longer semester, according to Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Ligia Amada Melo who said last week that the stoppages at the UASD might result in the semester having to be extended to compensate for the loss of school hours, as reported in Listin Diario. Members of the Dominican Student Federation (FED) expressed their displeasure with the strike by marching in protest against the stoppages, and at one point students closed the University gates in an attempt to stop the striking teachers from leaving the campus.
The National Drug Control Department (DNCD) have announced another round of mass staff dismissals. Since August 16 they have removed 600 officers from duty for various infringements of the law. DNCD head Rafael Ramirez said that illegal behavior will not be tolerated at the DNCD and is quoted in El Caribe newspaper as saying that it is outrageous that a DNCD agent could live right next door to a drug house, perhaps referring to the case of one of the dismissed officials.
A delegation of Taiwanese reporters has arrived in the country, and the group paid a visit to Chief of Police Bernardo Santana Paez yesterday, to discuss the murder of two Taiwanese students in the DR over the weekend. The two students, Hoo Cheng Yin (22) and Gon Cheng Juey (19), were murdered last Saturday, and four others were injured, after they were ambushed at their farm on the 79th kilometer of the Duarte Highway in Bonao. Santana Paez, speaking in El Caribe newspaper, offered no details of his meeting with the reporters and would only say that the conversation had gone well, and that the reporters were seeking information about their countrymen's deaths. Santana said that the reporters expressed satisfaction with the way the investigation is developing, and that the reporters are constantly being informed about developments. The Chief of Police also said that as of yesterday 15 people have been apprehended in connection with the murders.
The French government has donated EUR750,000 to the Dominican government for development projects in the province of Elias Pina that is on the border with Haiti. Presidential Technical Secretary Temistocles Montas accepted the funds on behalf of the state from French Ambassador to the DR Cecile Pozzo di Borgo during a ceremony at the Hermanas Mirabal Hall at the Presidential Palace. Di Borgo said that the funds would be used to help in strengthening the country's institutions, and in Elias Pina province. Hoy newspaper reports that the municipalities of Comendador, Pedro Santana, Banica, Hondo Valle, El Llano and Juan Santiago will benefit directly from these funds. Montas pointed out that Elias Pina was chosen as a beneficiary for the funds because it makes up 2.9% of the national territory and 1% of the national population. He also pointed out that 92% of that population lives in poverty, with 49% working in farming.
The European Union is to donate EUR53 million to the Dominican Republic with most of the money going towards combating poverty. The National Organizer for European Development Funds (ONFED) will oversee the project. The funds will also be used to strengthen public policy and help in the macroeconomic reforms required by the IMF agreement. The money will be given out over a two-year period between 2006 and 2008 and that EUR38 million will be disbursed as "direct budget support," EUR5 million towards Institutional Support for Regional Integration, and EUR10 million for Institutional Support for the Management of Public Finance. Diario Libre reports that the money will be added to the national budget instead of being handled through separate projects. EU ambassador Dino Sinigallia said that the donation is aimed at helping the country fulfill its Millennium Development Goals.
The Metropolitan Hospital of Santiago (HOM) will be the first hospital in the Cibao region to offer bone marrow transplants to patients as part of a cross- institutional exchange with the Technological Institute (TI) of Monterrey, Mexico. Oncologist Liliana Fernandez spoke of the benefits of the program in El Caribe newspaper, explaining that it would allow patients to stay in the DR to receive treatment. Jose Rafael Borbolla Escoboza, Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the TI in Monterrey said that there is no doubt that this hospital, which is set to open on 20 December, will be a leader in Latin America for its investment in technology and human resources.
The US$18 million Punta Espada golf course at Cap Cana was inaugurated yesterday by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, who designed the 18-hole course. Nicklaus commented that the course's location had made building difficult, but that builders were able to overcome those obstacles. The company let Nicklaus choose where he wanted to locate the course, giving it priority over real estate issues. Nicklaus described the course as "impressive" and "one of a kind" and said it was worthy of a PGA tournament. More than one thousand people attended the ceremonies that included a special luncheon for Cap Cana members and the cutting of the ceremonial ribbon.
Dominican-born baseball player Jose Reyes belted a two-run game winning homerun yesterday, giving the Major League Baseball team a dramatic victory over the Japanese all-star team. The game was played at the Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, Japan and the Japanese were swept by the US all-stars in five games. Reyes hit the blast off of Japanese reliever Hisashi Ogura and the Dominican player, who plays for the New York Mets during the regular season, contributed to the first defeat of a Japanese team in 72 years.
World class award-winning theater presentations are scheduled for this weekend in Santo Domingo. The 5th Santo Domingo Theater Festival opens Thursday, 9 November at 7 pm at Plaza de Espana with the performance of Chilean-French group La Gran Reyneta-Royal de Luxe's "Roman Photo." Roman Photo will again be presented at Plaza de Espana at 7 pm on Friday, 10 November and Saturday, 11 November.
On Friday, 10 November, the highlight of the festival is the Patron Vasquez's dramatic-comedy, "La Estupidez" presentation at the Sala Munuel Rueda of the Bellas Artes Palace, where five actors perform 24 characters all staged around motel rooms near Las Vegas, Nevada.
On Sunday, not to be missed is the Matacandelas group presentation at 4 pm at the Columbus Park in the Colonial City. Or the "Dance Umbrella" and "Sous Nos Yeux" presentations by Marie Josee Chartier of Canada at 9 pm at Casa de Teatro. On Tuesday, 14 November, do not miss the 7 pm performance of Peru's Yuyachkani group, "Adios Ayacucho" at the Sala Ravelo of the National Theater. And on Wednesday, at 9 pm at the Manuel Rueda Hall of Bellas Artes Palace, Brazil's mime, Denise Stocklos is presenting Mary Stuart, where she impersonates both Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth and the torturous pulls of political power of the period.
For more on forthcoming events, see http://www.dr1.com/calendar
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