2003 – Page 76

The Ambassador of Taiwan, Chi-Tai (John) Feng told Hoy newspaper that the President of Taiwan, Chen Sui-Bian, would visit the Dominican Republic on 5 November. President Mejia has officially visited Taiwan twice, in 2001 and 2002, but, according to a report in Hoy newspaper, he visited Taiwan more than 20 times before being appointed head …

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The Puerto Rican Seismic Network (RSPR) will install ten temporary seismic study stations to analyze the fault line associated with last month’s earthquake in the Puerto Plata area. The data they collect will be studied by RSPR and their Dominican counterpart, the Dominican Seismic Network.

El Caribe carries details of a national survey on health, which has found that more women than men are living with HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic. The highest incidence is in the east of the country, in the provinces of La Romana, Higuey and El Seybo, and over half the population do not believe themselves …

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El Caribe leads with a report that says two people die in the Dominican Republic each day as a result of gunshot wounds. Over 360,000 Dominican civilians are legally armed – 7% of the population – but many more are in possession of illegal firearms. “Pulling the trigger has become all too common,” says the …

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El Caribe newspaper reports on the 10 most accident-prone corners in Santo Domingo. Intersections that need to be approached with care are: Maximo Gomez/Kennedy; Tiradentes/27 de Febrero; Lincoln/Kennedy; Lincoln/27; Ortega & Gasset/27; Ortega & Gasset/Kennedy; Churchill/27; Lope de Vega/Pastoriza; Lope de Vega/Kennedy; and Lincoln/Jose A. Soler.

Mercasid and its affiliate, Industrias Veganas (Induveca), has taken over the operation of the Weightlifting Pavilion built for the Pan American Games at a cost of RD$46 million. With a capacity for 1,644 spectators, the venue is located in the Parque del Este sports complex. News reports indicate that the Dominican Republic is the only …

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The Supreme Court of Justice rendered its decision on the 5% tax on exports and the 10% surcharge on imports, as introduced by Presidential decrees 727-03 and 139-03 in response to the recent economic difficulties, declaring them both unconstitutional. The controversial taxes were met with active resistance from the business community, who took the matter …

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The government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made the first revision to the stand-by agreement as a result of the repossession of Spanish private electricity company Union Fenosa by the Dominican state. The IMF asks that the government study the terms of the deal between the Dominican electricity board (CDEEE) and Union Fenosa …

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The Itabo, Haina and Puerto Plata electricity generating companies are taking legal steps to oppose the government’s takeover of Union Fenosa. They warn that if all the shares are transferred into government hands as part of the deal, it will seriously undermine the EDEs’ economic stability. It should be noted that the distribution companies’ debt …

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An opinion piece by Fabio R. Herrera Minino in Hoy newspaper calls the government and the power generation and distribution companies “bad guys”, who seek to better their own interests without any consideration of the public suffering caused by their “business that is poorly run and even more poorly supervised.” The official explanation for the …

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