2001 – Page 115

President Mejia has committed to release RD$57 million of the RD$600 million slated for sports facilities for the 2003 Pan Am Games. The money will be used to repair the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center at the Parque Mirador del Este and to build new offices for the Ministry of Sports.

El Siglo newspaper looks into the high cost of the Jacobo Majluta Avenue to Dominican taxpayers today. The government estimates it will cost RD$419.9 million to repair Jacobo Majluta Avenue on the north side of Santo Domingo. The avenue, was built during the 1994-1996 Balaguer administration at a cost of RD$300 million. Shortly after, major …

Read more…

Power supply problems continued yesterday with long blackouts amidst an anticipated 20% billing increase for those paying more than RD$1,500 a month. President Mejia said he does not see a short term solution to the problem which he described as “financial.” The Superintendent of Electricity, Jose Dolores Ovalles, said a solution will not happen before …

Read more…

President Hipolito Mejia said yesterday that governing is harder than he thought it would be. “Now, for whomever becomes President… it is harder than I thought, because there are security problems, problems unknown by most of the people,” he said. He did not give details on these problems. He blamed the difficulties on the “reluctance, …

Read more…

Navy Chief Luis Alberto Humeau Hidalgo said the Navy will offer technical advice to the Ministry of Industry of Commerce in its purchase of three ships to form a Dominican merchant marine. The ships will be used to transport Dominican produce throughout the Caribbean, taking advantage of the recently-signed free trade agreement. Rear Admiral Humeau …

Read more…

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rafaela Alburquerque, said that President Hipolito Mejia will meet with former President Joaquin Balaguer to lobby for the passage of the bonds bill. Alburquerque said that after that meeting, the PRSC party deputies will receive their instructions on how to vote on the sovereign bond bill. The government …

Read more…

Vice President of the Senate Commission for Justice, Cesar Augusto Matias, has vowed that revised legal codes will be passed by Congress before 27 July, when the legislature closes. The 200-year-old codes were rewritten by the Comisionado de Reforma y Modernización de Justicia during the Fernandez administration. They encompass the penal code, criminal code, penal …

Read more…

El Siglo newspaper today denounces Haitian merchants for exporting charcoal produced in the DR to Haiti. It is illegal to cut trees to produce charcoal in the DR. The charcoal is transported in trucks and sailboats from the border zones where it is processed. A bag of charcoal sells for 160 pesos in Port au …

Read more…

The Dominican Republic will export more than 350 million cigars to Europe and the US this year. The director of the Instituto Nacional del Tabaco, Fabio Fermin Acosta, told El Siglo newspaper that this is a hefty increase over last year’s export total of 200 million cigars. The newspaper reports that the leading exporting companies …

Read more…