DR1 Daily News - Thursday, 8 September 2016

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CMD meets with SNS
Conep works to strengthen trade with Haiti
Businessmen want city convention bureau
IDB helps fund a traffic solution for Santiago
Flea market vendors and Santiago Mayor reach agreement
Lack of migration agents creates long lines at SDQ
OAS: ?Automation ?changed? elections?
JCE collected RD$10 billion over nine years
Consumer prices down according to Central Bank
PRM senators give up ?social funds?
Puerto Rico crisis affects DR
Supreme Court dismisses case against Diaz Rua
Venezuelan parents come for their deceased daughter
Drama at the National Theater


CMD meets with SNS
National Health Service (SNS) director Nelson Rodriguez Monegro and Dominican Medical Association (CMD) president Waldo Ariel Suero have agreed to hold monthly meetings to follow-up on the work of the National Health System as well as discussing health sector pensions and personnel appointments.

According to a press communiqu? quoted in Diario Libre, the SNS boss said that both entities are working on the operational side of the system. In this context he said that the assistance provided by the hospital network is hugely important. Suero, meanwhile, said the meeting had been ?positive.?

The monthly meetings are aimed at resolving the problems affecting the National Health System. The meeting at the SNS headquarters on Wednesday 7 September 2016, which is said to have been cordial, was also attended by Wilson Roa and Mary Hernandez as CMD representatives.

Last week the administration and the CMD reached tentative agreements on working hours in health centers and salary policy. At the time, Public Health Minister Altagracia Guzman and the head of SNS were also present, as well as Dominican Social Security Institute director Cesar Mella.


Conep works to strengthen trade with Haiti
The National Business Council (Conep) has announced it is willing to help establish a series of measures to reduce the informal nature of the trade between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They stressed that the lifting of the ban on 23 products last week was a major achievement for both countries.

Conep president Rafael Blanco Canto and several members of his board of directors met with Foreign Relations Minister Miguel Vargas to express their support for the strengthening and the promotion of the Dominican Republic as a safe, competitive and sustainable destination for commerce.

Vargas told the business community that he was committed to promoting the nation?s development and reported that he has instructed diplomatic representatives together with consular agents to attract new investments.


Businessmen want city convention bureau
The president and executive vice president of the National Business Council (Conep), Rafael Blanco Canto and Rafael Paz, respectively, visited Mayor of the National District David Collado yesterday, 7 September 2016. The businessmen motivated the Mayor to foster the opening of a convention bureau to sell the city of Santo Domingo as a destination for business meetings.

The business spokesmen said that the city already has several meetings and convention facilities, including the new facilities at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in addition to those already in operation at city hotels.

Blanco Canto argued that all the big cities are involved in attracting meetings, conventions and fairs. Blanco Canto said: ?It is a very important market segment that moves millions of dollars a year and has two great advantages. These are that persons who come for these events spend more than a normal tourist and these same persons may return with their families.?

Collado said he would consult on the opening of the convention bureau. ?It is an innovative project that has our backing,? he said. He said it is about coordinating international activities using the facilities that already exist in the National District.

Blanco Canto offered the collaboration of the Conep for traffic, garbage, the relaunching of the Malecon and other aspects. ?We want to build a public-private alliance for issues that are of mutual interest in the city,? he said.

He spoke of the need for making Santo Domingo a people and environmentally-friendly city eliminating problems on city streets, including holes on sidewalks, among other problems.

During the meeting, Mayor David Collado advanced that in 60 days garbage collection in the city, including the Colonial City, would be taken to a nighttime schedule.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...35/empresarios-plantean-un-centro-de-negocios


IDB helps fund a traffic solution for Santiago
On Wednesday 7 September 2016 the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) together with the Santiago City and Municipality Strategic Development Council signed an agreement for a donation of US$300,000 to fund the creation of the first road system for safe and sustainable urban movements in the country in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

The donation will go towards creating a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for the Santiago Metropolitan Area, which will be coordinated by the City Council.

According to the IDB, this project will bring together three fundamental categories of territorial, traffic, and transportation and roadways, involving the organization of the origin and final destination of urban travel with an efficient public transportation system, including safe roads, proper signals and traffic lights aimed at reducing the country?s high traffic accident rate.

The IDB representative in the Dominican Republic Flora Montealegre signed the agreement with Minister of Economy Isidoro Santana and the president of the Strategic Development Council of Santo Domingo, Carlos Fondeur.

http://www.7dias.com.do/economia/20...-mil-para-plan-movilidad-urbana-santiago.html


Flea market vendors and Santiago Mayor reach agreement
The Mayor?s office in Santiago de los Caballeros has reached an agreement with the flea market vendors who are overcrowding the area around the large public market on Jos? Armando Bermudez Street, and spilling over into the city center.

Mayor Abel Martinez and Santiago Flea Market Association members signed the agreement to restrict the area used by the vendors, which will allow some of them to remain in the area currently in use until 5 January when they will be transferred to a space on Hispano-Americana Avenue.

Listin Diario reports that Santiago Strategic Development of Council president Carlos Alfredo Fondeur witnessed the agreement.

The vendors pledged to respect the perimeter established by the city council for commercial sales points as long as they remain in the area and to allow free pedestrian movement as well as traffic around the market and the cemetery on Calle 30 de Marzo.

The new flea market will cover an area of 54,000 m? on the Hispano-Americana Avenue.


Lack of migration agents creates long lines at SDQ
An apparent shortage of migration inspectors at the airport immigration desks has been causing long lines for departing passengers, according to El Nacional newspaper reporters covering events at Las Americas International Airport (SDQ).

Staff from the airlines that operate out of the airport complained of the lack of migration inspectors and said that this was causing departure delays of as long as half an hour. They said that only six of the 12 immigration booths were staffed, causing passenger discomfort and delayed departures.

They said that the problem has been reported to the migration authorities and airport administration but nothing has been done.

Airline executives who spoke to reporters asked for their identities to be withheld in order to avoid reprisals. They stated that there were not enough inspectors to check two or three flights at the same time during peak hours.

The reduction in the Migration staff coincides with the installation of the new autogate migration inspection machines at the Las Americas International System, enabling passengers to complete the outgoing migration process without the need of a migration inspector.


OAS: ?Automation ?changed? elections?
The Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Mission to the Dominican Republic, headed by the former President of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, has presented its final report recommending that new technologies be tested prior to their implementation at a wide scale such as a general elections, the passing of reforms to the electoral law, and discontinuing the separating of the senator and deputy votes.

It also is critical that in the 2016 election, the traditional role of a community leader as president of a voting station was replaced by one of a technical assistant as responsible for the proper operation or otherwise of the equipment and consequently of the election table, in contrast with the civic spirit that had previously prevailed.

The OAS called for changes in the way funding to the political parties is awarded. At present, 80% of public financing to political parties is distributed in equal parts to the political parties that obtained more than 5% of the valid votes in the previous election and 20% among the other political parties.

The report reiterates the importance of carrying out a profound structural reform of the legal framework that controls the electoral processes.

http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/201...tancialmente-proceso-electoral-segun-oea.html
http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...urgente-en-ley-electoral-rd-garantice-equidad


JCE collected RD$10 billion over nine years
Speaking at the inauguration of the new Central Electoral Board (JCE) offices in Veron, Punta Cana on Wednesday 7 September 2016, JCE president Roberto Rosario said that his management of the agency that is coming to an end, ?administered with honesty? the payments for services made by citizens, which has totaled ?more than RD$10 billion? over the past nine years.

He said that when he arrived at the JCE the public records officials would keep all the money generated by their work because they didn?t have fixed salaries, which he changed by assigning them salaries.

He said that following this measure the Civil Registry Offices generated some RD$700 million in the first year and collections were approximately RD$1 billion per year during the following years. Rosario said that these funds have enabled the agency to open new offices, improve the employees? salaries and computerize some 30 million documents.

During the inauguration he stressed the importance of a Civil Registry office in Punta Cana, the leading tourist area in the Caribbean, where some 12,000 weddings have taken place.


Consumer prices down according to Central Bank
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic reported on Wednesday 7 September 2016 that the Consumer Price Index showed a -0.06% change during the month of August, placing in relation for the first six months of the year at 0.31%.

The projected annual inflation rate measured between August 2015 until August 2016 was 1.47% below the lower limit of the goals established in the monetary program of some 4%.

The report from the Central Bank shows that the slight fall in the Consumer Price Index during August is basically explained by the behavior of two groups: food and non-alcoholic beverages and transportation.

The study adds that to a lesser measure the Housing group was down by 0.20% while the Education index showed a 2.46 increase. The report says that the 0.44% decrease in Transportation was due to the lower fuel prices during the month of August.

http://www.bancentral.gov.do/notas_...el-mes-de-agosto-registr-una-variacin-de-006-


PRM senators give up ?social funds?
In what is perhaps a quixotic gesture, two opposition PRM party Senators, Santiago Zorrilla from El Seibo and Jos? Ignacio Paliza from Puerto Plata are calling for the elimination of the social funds, or as they are better known, ?little barrels?, and urged the President to exclude the funds assigned for this purpose in the Senate from the Budget Law.

Both Zorrilla and Paliza announced that they would donate the recently approved salary increase to non-profit institutions in their own provinces.

In their statements to El Nacional reporters on Wednesday, 7 September 2016, they said: ?We have taken this decision based on our belief that society needs new ways to play politics. We stress that the ?little barrel? is an incorrect creation by the PLD.?

They added, that ?at a time when our judges, doctors, teachers, agronomists, military and police personnel and public servants in general are calling for salary increases, which are quite deserved, beyond any debate or argument, this is not the right time for the increase announced by the legislators.?


Puerto Rico crisis affects DR
The economic crisis currently affecting our neighbor to the east, Puerto Rico, is also affecting the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic exports US$605 million to Puerto Rico every year.

According to a report in Listin Diario, Puerto Rico has a fiscal deficit of US$70 billion, based on figures from the United States Congress.

The Chamber of Commerce and Export for Puerto Rico says that the Dominican Republic sent US$605 million worth of exports to Puerto Rico in 2015, while the island sent products worth US$732 million to the Dominican Republic.

These figures reflect the good trade relationship between both countries, and the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce places the Dominican Republic in 10th place as a destination for exports, a positive point at a time when Puerto Rico?s stability is in play, with an unpayable US$70 billion debt owed to its own citizens, international funders and multilateral agencies.

Dominican Agribusiness Board executive president Osmar Benitez says that the Puerto Rican market is essential for maintaining the balance in the DR?s farm export sector for three reasons: the island?s proximity to the Dominican Republic, the cultural affinity between the two nations as well as the direct transportation links provided by the ferry service, at least until a few weeks ago when a fire on board suspended its operations.

He said: ?You place your container on the ferry at eight in the evening and those products reach market at six in the morning. They don?t see the sun and even though these containers are refrigerated you have the advantage with shipping at night.? Benitez pointed out that Puerto Rico imports 85% of its foodstuffs.

An important factor for Benitez is the fact that they have already studied the issue and are confident that most homes in Puerto Rico will adjust their consumption of non-essentials like new televisions or brand-name clothing, but will not stop buying their traditional food, which, he says has been supplied by Dominican producers to that excellent market for decades.


Supreme Court dismisses case against Diaz Rua
The Supreme Court?s Second Penal Chamber has rejected an annulment request filed by the District Attorney of the National District, Yeni Berenice Reynoso against the definitive dismissal of the investigation into alleged corruption by former Public Works minister V?ctor Diaz Rua.

In the sentence, which included dissenting votes from Miriam German Brito, presiding, and Esther Angelan Casasnovas, the court states that it was able to prove that the decision being challenged did not contain any mistakes, ?since a proper application of the penal rules was applied, following the rules of due process, in all procedural aspects of the case.?

According to Diario Libre, the Court of Appeals Penal Chamber?s First Courtroom had confirmed the decision that declared each and every one of the actions in the investigation process carried out by the prosecutors to be null and void.

The tribunal rejected appeals filed by Yeni Berenice Reynoso and the Justice First Foundation against the decision by the Fourth Court of Instruction.

The Court ruled that the Justice Department?s activities had violated Diaz Rua?s fundamental rights. They said that the former minister is protected by the constitutional principle of no self-incrimination and that the Justice Department was under the obligation to notify him not only of the complaints, but also all acts that were carried out after the case was filed.


Venezuelan parents come for their deceased daughter
The parents of the late 27-year old Katherine Galant?n L?pez were located. Galanton had been in coma at the Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital in Santo Domingo after being seriously injured in a car crash with her boyfriend 22-year old Dominican Rey Antonio ?lvarez when returning to Santo Domingo from the Romeo Santos concert in Punta Cana on 28 August 2016.

Her boyfriend died instantly when their vehicle crashed into an electricity pole in Andres, Boca Chica, as reported in Acento.

The parents traveled to the Dominican Republic to repatriate the corpse to their hometown in Cuman? in the state of Sucre. A fund-raiser was held by Alexandra Meneses (Mama Ale) to collect funds for the transfer, and a Venezuelan airline donated the airfare.

The late Galant?n was hospitalized in coma but never recovered from the injuries.

http://acento.com.do/2016/actualida...cuerpo-venezolana-murio-accidente-boca-chica/


Drama at the National Theater
"El ultimo instante," a drama by Dominican playwright Franklin Dominguez continues 9-11 September 2016 at the Sala Ravelo of the National Theater in Santo Domingo.

It is the story of Noemi, an inmate in a mental hospital, and her past and present.

The monologue starring Carlota Carretero is directed by Guillermo Cordero.

Tickets are RD$800. Friday and Saturday at 8:30pm, Sundays at 6:30pm.


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