2001 – Page 143

Former President Leonel Fernandez is accused of defrauding the state of RD$35,000 million in connection with the privatization of the Dominican Electricity Corporation. A group of private citizens presented the case to First Instance Court of Judge Enrique Marchena. Also accused of fraud are Antonio Isa Conde, former president of the Commission to Reform Public …

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The Ministry of Public Works signed a contract yesterday with Consorcio para el Desarrollo Ferroviario Nacional. The consortium plans to invest US$300 million to build a 160-kilometer long railway from the Port of Haina to Santiago, in the center of the DR. Minister Miguel Maldonado said the tracks will go up on a 15 meter …

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The European Union has available 176 million Euros (approximately RD$2,500 million) for education, environmental, geology and mining projects in the DR. Manuel Caceres Troncoso, in charge of the European Union programs, said the money would begin to be distributed next year. The Dominican government is required to advance a RD$25 million counterpart to the funds, …

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President Hipolito Mejia is expected to sign the Social Security Bill into law this 10 May, the day that commemorates the death of PRD party leader, Jose Francisco Peña Gómez. But El Caribe newspaper points out that if the government doesn’t hustle, the implementation of the bill may not happen in this administration. The departments …

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Former Governor of the Central Bank Hector Valdez Albizu said the Dominican economy is in no way in crisis. He said that the deficit of the balance of payments at year-end was US$48 million, "practically nothing." The balance of payments had shown a surplus during the previous five years. Valdez attributed the situation to an …

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Martin Taylor, general manager Microsoft Caribbean, said that their sales in the DR are up 156% over the past two years. He said the company is concentrating its efforts on promoting the use of Microsoft’s business platform.

Today, Secretaries Day, 26 April, can be considered an unofficial holiday. Most people came to work prepared for the lunchtime partying that will usually mean taking the rest of the day off. Other unofficial holidays in the DR are Easter Thursday, and the afternoons of 23 December and 24 December which precede the Christmas Day …

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Former president of the Dominican Tennis Federation, Gonzalo Mejia urged Congress to pass the Dominican Sports Bill. He feels the Dominican sports authorities have lost interest in the bill and are focusing on other matters "that apparently are more productive moneywise or more interesting such as the building of the Pan American Games villa and …

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President Hipolito Mejia is in favor of no limits to the number of visas Dominican consulates issue to Haitians. El Siglo recently said that Dominican consulates had issued more than 43,000 visas in the first trimester of the year, of which 7,000 persons had not returned. The newspaper highlighted that there was a limit on …

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