2003 – Page 85

Rafael (Fello) Subervi, the former Tourism Minister who aspires to become the PRD presidential candidate for the 16 May 2004 election, said yesterday that President Hipolito Mejia would only be able to win the PRD party nomination through fraud. Subervi’s wife, current Tourism Minister Miguelina Ortiz, said on the Julio Hazim TV program this morning …

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El Caribe newspaper points out that an estimated extra RD$4 billion will be in circulation this month due to the 13th wage paid to public and private employees on occasion of the Christmas bonus (“regalia”). This amounts to an estimated payout of RD$2 billion for the government payroll and approximately RD$2 billion for private businesses. …

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A business mission from the Republic of China is on the island to study the Dominican market. The mission visited the Listin Diario newspaper and said they are interested in investing in banking, power, ports, telecommunications and the construction of highways and railroads, according to Liu Linlin, director of the Department for American Affairs of …

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Listin Diario reports that Dominicans are drinking much less whisky. Whisky importer Diageo Dominicano, which represents the Johnny Walker brand, says there has been an overall 40% decline in sales compared to those in 2002. He says that consumers have lately opted for cheaper alcoholic beverages and criticized the fact that such increasing costs are …

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The case of the murder of Jose Castro in a household mutiny continues to make headlines. Castro died of gunshot wounds at the hands of his domestic help, in a plot hatched by Castro’s wife, Miriam Brito, and his two teenage sons. The construction material entrepreneur was known for his brutal treatment of his family. …

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The Aguilas Cibaenas have won 10 straight games as they maintain their leadership of the Dominican Winter Professional Baseball Championship. The team is five games ahead of the Gigantes of San Francisco de Macoris and the Licey of Santo Domingo. Next in the baseball standing are the Estrellas of San Pedro de Macoris, who rank …

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The Dominican Republic received US$677 million in direct foreign investment, according to reports in several papers. Danilo del Rosario, the director of the Dominican Investment Center, told the press that as of June the Central Bank had registered US$339.5 million in finalized investments, another US$181.9 million that was “in process,” and a further US$155.2 million …

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Canadian company Unigold promotes its Dominican Republic business as what it’s all about, on its website at http://www.unigoldinc.com In its annual report, the company highlights that it began operations on 1 January 2003 and was established for the primary purpose of exploring, discovering and developing gold deposits on its 81,000 hectares of property held in …

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President Hipolito Mejia promised banana growers a RD$150-million line of credit at the Agriculture Bank (Bagricola) to restore the croplands destroyed by the flooding of the Yaque River. Torrential downpours in the northern section of the Dominican Republic produced flooding along all of the major rivers. The Yuna and the Yaque rivers were estimated to …

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Hoy newspaper reported that a loan request made by the Dominican Republic to “bridge” the shortfalls in the electric sector and fulfill other obligations required by the IMF was denied. The idea of the “bridge” was to meet these obligations until the standby agreement with the IMF is signed and funds from other international monetary …

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