1999 – Page 224

The International Forum on Protection of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean opened yesterday at the Melia Hotel with a keynote address by Vice President Jaime David Fern?ndez Mirabal. The focus of the forum is marine pollution caused by ships (as opposed to land-based sources). The Vice President urged the nations of the Caribbean …

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SEDEFIR will announce this afternoon that two Major League baseball teams, the New York Mets and the Montreal Expos, will play an exhibition series in Santo Domingo’s Quisqueya Stadium March 12-14. The match is being financed by the national government.

President Fern?ndez yesterday signed a decree (433-97) transferring control of the professional baseball stadiums in the DR to the Sports Ministry (SEDEFIR). The decree affects Santo Domingo’s Quisqueya Stadium, Santiago’s Cibao Stadium and San Pedro de Macor?s’ Tetelo Vargas Stadium, all of which previously had been run since 1995 by a foundation headed by Dr. …

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Rafael Camilo, Director of the National Planning Office (ONAPLAN), announced yesterday that President Fern?ndez has imposed a freeze on regular government spending for the remainder of 1999. The freeze is intended to ensure that the government does not build up a budgetary deficit. Camilo explained that the measure is intended to reassure the markets that …

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American Airlines yesterday finally managed to get a full day’s slate of all regularly scheduled flights to and from the Dominican Republic, albeit with some difficulties. Several flights in from New York and Miami arrived late, although evening flights 1901, 422 and 423 met their regular schedules. One from Santo Domingo to New York, flight …

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The President of the Chamber of Deputies, H?ctor Rafael Peguero M?ndez [Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) – Independencia], yesterday declared the Senate bill for a Financial and Monetary Code passed earlier this week to be "stillborn." Speaking on the television current affairs show "Hola," Peguero M?ndez said that the Senate only passed the bill "to give …

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The Senate finally approved the Financial and Monetary Code last night, sending it to the Chamber of Deputies. The key outstanding issue – whether savings and loans associations (S&L’s) would be authorized to offer the same range of financial services as commercial banks – was sidestepped by leaving it up to the nation’s Monetary Board …

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The American Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic (Amcham) called on the Fern?ndez Government to speed up the privatization process for the Dominican Electricity Corporation (CDE). Speaking at Amcham’s monthly luncheon, Amcham President Alfonso Paniagua, said the organization wants to see the process stepped up while ensuring that it is "transparent" and "effective" so …

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The Dominican Electricity Corporation’s (CDE) new Hydroelectric Generation Company formally announced yesterday that it will build the Manabao-Bejucal-Tavera Dam on the Rio Yaque del Norte. The hydroelectric dam project was originally slated for construction in the mid-1980’s, but was abandoned by the government under President Balaguer in 1987. CDE has openly toyed with the idea …

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The Senate last night approved in its second reading a new export promotion law. Among other things, the bill would give exporters a refund on import tariffs paid on primary materials, inputs, intermediate goods, labels, packages and packaging material used in finished products they export from the DR. Also, products returned to suppliers abroad in …

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