1996 – Page 22

At the time of going to press the National Council of Magistrates (CNM), the important body of Congressmen, judges, and the President that will choose new Supreme Court judges, was scheduled to convene on Wednesday, 18 September. The CNM was created as part of the constitutional reforms passed in August 1994 for the selection of …

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Cracks in the armor of unity at the National Palace began to show last week as the Assistant Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Miguel Solano, publicly said that the Administrative Secretary, Diandino Peña, has been authorized by President Leonel Fernandez to award construction contracts without receiving competitive bids, but by favoring a selected few. Mr. …

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Miguel Guerrero, the first press secretary of President Leonel Fernandez, resigned effective 12 September, telling the Ultima Hora newspaper that he was “the least informed person in the National Palace.” Mr. Guerrero, a well-respected journalist and author of several books on recent Dominican history, told the newspaper that he had tried to change the traditional …

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Last week, the Central Bank announced that the accumulated inflation rate as of August measured by the variation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) against the figure for December 1995 was 1.31%, being less than that registered for the same period in 1995, which was 5.58%. The annual inflation rate, measured by the variation of …

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The U.S. government has lifted, after a period of seven years, the prohibition on importing Chinese varieties of vegetables produced in Dominican Republic. Donna J. Hrinak, U.S. ambassador to D.R., passed the news to the Minister for Agriculture, Frank Rodriguez, and said that the decision to allow the imports was made after the D.R. took …

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The Superintendent of Banks, Jose Santos Taveras, says that within the last few days his department has returned RD$6 million to depositors in now bankrupt financial institutions. He said that the beneficiaries were customers of the following: Hipoteca y Pagares, Interdosa, La Monetaria, Revensa, Tropical, Agropecuaria, Doinpre, Prestamos Estrella, Fininsa, Finaban, Hipoteca Universal, Futurinter, among …

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According to the former president of the Federación de Cámaras Europeas, Fernando Gonzalez Nicolas, various European Union companies are interested in participating in the recovery of the state owned mining company Rosario Dominicana, the Corporación Dominicana de Electricidad (CDE) and the Consejo Estatal del Azucar (CEA), where they are willing to invest huge, but unspecified, …

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Economist Jose Luis Aleman has pointed out that the country’s openness to foreign investment has generated lots of jobs and gives, as examples, the free zones and tourist industry. He said that between June 1986 to June 1996 the amount of people working in free zones, went up from 51,221 to 180,000, and that employment …

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The Minister of Agriculture, Frank Rodriguez, said that the government will apply a zero rate of duty on imports of materials and machinery for the country’s agriculture, but he did not say when the measure will be applied.

The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) representative to the Dominican Republic says that his institution is willing to restore active support for the country’s agriculture, in view of the climate of trust engendered by the current government. He said that the IDB has already started to study the main areas that need assistance.