1999 – Page 201

The various participants left the fourth session of the political dialogue at the National Palace yesterday claiming significant progress in the talks and suggesting that Thursday’s session may bring actual concrete agreements. The "moderators" (not mediators) and official spokesmen for the dialogue, monsignors Agripino N??ez Collado and Francisco Jos? Arn?iz, said that the four-hour session …

Read more…

PRD President Esquea Guerrero told reporters yesterday that his Party plans to raise a number of socioeconomic issues in the political dialogue once the LMD and JCE agenda items are concluded. Among the issues he says that the PRD intends to raise are (1) higher salaries for teachers and doctors; (2) improvements in public hospitals; …

Read more…

The Senate yesterday approved on second reading the Export Reactivation and Incentives bill, which now goes to the Chamber of Deputies to be accepted or rejected. The bill approved yesterday is a fusion between the original proposal submitted by the Executive Branch and a rival bill drafted by Senators of the opposition PRD. Among other …

Read more…

The Senate yesterday approved on first reading a bill that would prohibit the government to avoid rules on submitting public works to open bidding by chopping the same project into smaller pieces. The bill, proposed by the Chairman of the Justice Committee, Milton Ray Guevara (PRD-Saman?), would require any project whose total value is over …

Read more…

The heads of two important DR business associations have expressed their support for the idea of "dollarizing" the Dominican economy, i.e., pegging the Dominican peso explicitly to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 ratio, or creating a single monetary unit for the Western Hemisphere anchored to the dollar. Interviewed by the news daily Listin Diario, …

Read more…

Public Works Minister Diandino Pe?a announced yesterday that his Ministry has begun work to reconstruct the international highway linking the DR with Haiti. The initial phase, he said, is focusing on places where land slides and shifts caused by heavy rains have created serious obstacles, namely those near Angel F?liz, Sabana Real, Cacique Enriquillo and …

Read more…

The President of the Dominican Association of Cable Companies (ADEC), Frank Jorge El?as, announced to reporters yesterday that ADEC’s assembly has agreed to expel any member found pirating television signals from satellites. The measure is the latest of steps announced by government and business groups to avoid being named priority violators of intellectual property rights …

Read more…

The Republic’s Controller-General – essentially the country’s internal auditor – announced yesterday that his office will start inspecting government offices’ intake of taxes, tariffs and fees. Haivanjoe Ng Corti?as explained that while the CG’s Office has long inspected how government offices manage and spend funds, until now it had not inspected income flows on a …

Read more…

The 48-hour strike called by "popular organizations" (populists) in the northcentral provincial city of Salcedo ended in the death of three, at least seven wounded and an indeterminate number (at least dozens) imprisoned. The violence was the result of confrontations between protesters and the police; who initiated hostilities is unclear. Autopsies have been ordered on …

Read more…

Police are searching everywhere for Dr. Marciano Santos Salado, wanted for the Monday murder of the director of the regional public hospital in Mao and for wounding the subdirector of that institution. It is believed that Dr. Santos has fled Valverde Province and may try to leave the DR. For that reason the Attorney-General’s Office …

Read more…