2004 – Page 44

Representatives of neighborhood groups and businesses of the Colonial City (known locally as “la Zona”) met yesterday at the city hall to find a midpoint between what is being described as nightlife getting out of hand in the historic city center and a much-desired boom for Santo Domingo’s cultural tourism and nightlife. Businesses agree that …

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President Leonel Fernandez will travel on Wednesday to Brazil to participate in the Group of Rio summit, as reported in El Caribe. The summit trains its focus this year on Latin American integration and the identification of new sources for finance. Fernandez told the press that in Brazil he will discuss two loans, one with …

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The private helicopter aboard which Police Chief Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez was traveling to Puerto Plata crashed yesterday at around 11am into a hill. The collision took place shortly before entering the city of Puerto Plata, when, according to the pilot, the turbine motor shut down. The head of the National Police …

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The Ministry of Interior and Police cancelled the arms licenses of members of the municipal police nationwide. Furthermore, Resolution 04-04 dated 29 October bans the use of municipal police uniforms and ranks on the grounds that this is in violation of other laws. In the resolution, Interior & Police Minister Franklin Almeyda stated that the …

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The mandated increases of 30% on minimum wages and 25% on monthly wages of up to RD$20,000 for companies with assets of more than RD$500,000 should be seen on 30 November pay checks, if the increases are not appealed. The National Salaries Commission has yet to rule on any wage increase for the free zone, …

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The net reserves of the Central Bank have improved and at the end of September stood at US$372.9 million ? the highest level since May 2003 when the banking crisis began. At the turn of government, the reserve level was US$352.2 million, considerably up from the US$114.2 million level of January 2004. The gross reserves …

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Beat Siegenthaler of Commerzbank Securities, the investment banking division of one of Europe’s top banks, reports that on Friday, the DR government announced its desire to conclude the negotiations on a new IMF program by mid-November. He indicates that the IMF has underscored this view with a statement saying that discussions would continue on electricity …

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Reporting on the Dominican Republic for Bear Stearns, Franco Uccelli says that while the country’s prospects have improved, the DR still needs to confront numerous significant challenges to achieve a bullish outcome. He emphasizes that it must first reinstate the IMF agreement to restore credibility to its economic and financial program and so that disbursements …

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Headlines over the weekend focused on talks within the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) to make room for 50,000 PLD party members on the government payroll from now to December. As reported in the Listin Diario, President Leonel Fernandez met with Lidio Cadet and Cristina Lizardo of the PLD’s jobs commission to discuss the need to …

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Cell phone use in the DR has boomed. In 1996, only 1 in every 100 people owned a cell phone. Only eight years later, however, this statistic has increased to 27 out of every 100. This means that cell phone sales represented 82,500 in 1996, a number which catapulted to 2.3 million as of March …

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