2004 – Page 137

How to increase wages in a country where companies have carried out mass personnel reductions and cost cuttings in order to just stay in business? That is the dilemma. But the issue could be political and a dirty trick played on the sustainability of the incoming Fernandez administration, writes the news commentator of page two …

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Elena Viyella de Paliza, president of the National Council of Business, has favored an adjustment of minimum wage levels. At the same time, she says before wages in general are increased inflation needs to be restrained. She also lamented that in the proposals being made by the PLD economic team there is no mention of …

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Two deaths and 30 students suffered knife injuries and 25 were assaulted in Santo Domingo public schools. Public school violence is making headlines in the press. Diario Libre highlights that if the parents of children attending the 60 public schools in the National District and the Province of Santo Domingo where weapons were confiscated had …

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Ministers of all religions legally recognized will soon be able to officiate weddings in the Dominican Republic, as reported in the Listin Diario. President Hipolito Mejia, who sent the bill to Congress, needs to sign the legislation into law. Previously, only religions officiated by Roman Catholic Church priests were legal. The measure primarily benefits Christian …

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Dominicans are stronger supporters of democracy than citizens in other Latin American countries, according to Niky Fabiancic, representative of the United Nations Development Program in the Dominican Republic. Upon presenting the report on the Profile of Democracy in the Dominican Republic, Fabiancic said that 85% of Dominicans believe their vote is effective. He highlighted that …

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Utopia Studios is considering building a US$1 billion movie studio and hotel and entertainment complex in the Dominican Republic. The principals of the company are US financier and real estate developer Joseph Gentile, and his wife Cathy Moriarty, a Hollywood actress who received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role alongside Robert …

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At least two and perhaps three serious impediments face the renewal of the IMF standby agreement, which was suspended due to overspending by the outgoing Mejia administration, as reported in Hoy newspaper today. Economic editor Mario Mendez writes that the different teams of experts for the transitional phase cannot get the numbers to match to …

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Politics, rather than technical matters, is likely to call the shots in the tax reform?s passage, in the opinion Franco Uccelli who reports on the Dominican Republic for the Bear Stearns brokerage firm. In his comments released today, he mentions the concerns of Dominican legislators regarding prospects for swift congressional approval of the fiscal reform …

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Public Health Minister Dr Jose Rodriguez Soldevilla admitted that the state hospitals are going through a difficult time and said he is trying to obtain a special subsidy to alleviate the problems. Readers will remember the recent troubles at the San Pedro de Macoris Regional Hospital reported in DR1 News. Rodriguez Soldevilla told reporters from …

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The overall poor quality of education received is showing up in the educational level of students opting for a career in education, according to a front-page report in El Caribe newspaper today. Victor Encarnacion, the director of the School of Pedagogy at the UASD, the state-owned Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, told the newspaper that …

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