2004 – Page 62

On occasion of the visit of Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the Basque Country, President Leonel Fernandez announced that 21 companies from northern Spain would invest in the DR. He said 20 will be high-tech companies that will set up shop in the Las Americas Cyberpark, while the other, Corporacion Cooperativa Mondragon (the seventh largest in …

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Bienes Nacionales, the government department that oversees state property, has assumed ownership of the Parador Mar de las Americas, the multi-million road-stop built during the Mejia administration. Its construction met with heavy opposition that criticized the takeover of public land and the unlikelihood of highway users stopping there to purchase goods. The Bienes Nacionales press …

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The Government Accounting Office accused the syndicate leaders of “irregularities” in the handling of the Plan Renove program that was an attempt by the PRD government to replace the nation’s flotilla of old public transportation vehicles for newer ones. According to Hoy newspaper, the Dominican government gave Plan Renove US$150 million, and now the accounting …

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Some 300 to 400 National Police agents are being retired as of today, informed Police & Interior Minister Franklyn Almeyda, as part of the clean-up process announced yesterday. While the minister cited the reasons for the forced retirements as “varied,” he elaborated that the misconduct of certain agents was justification for their departure. “There are …

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A National District judge has placed an impediment on the movements of certain ex-police officials that will keep them in their residential areas for the duration of the investigation of the illicit distribution of recovered stolen vehicles. The officials involved, according to the Listin Diario, are ex-Police Chief Jaime Marte Martinez (now retired), Brigadier General …

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The United Nations representative for the UN Development Program (UNDP), Nicky Fabiancic, spoke yesterday during the Biarritz group meeting held in Casa de Campo, La Romana, that the way in which the DR-CAFTA was negotiated does not guarantee the recovery of the Dominican Republic’s economic growth, such as it experienced in the late 1990s. Fabiancic …

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For every dollar that the price of oil goes up, the Dominican Republic has to find US$50 million to pay for its fuel supply. On a daily basis, this means an additional US$140,000 will be needed to cover the daily demand of 140,000 barrels of petroleum. So far this month, oil prices have risen by …

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The Dominican Republic will have to negotiate with the United States, Spain and Japan over the arrears it is carrying with the Paris Club. According to El Caribe, the Dominican economic team will have to go face-to-face with the representatives of these countries to try and arrange a payment schedule. According to the data from …

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The Dominican coconut tree is under serious attack from a deadly virus called Lethal Coconut Yellowing and is affecting coconut trees in Dajabon, Santiago and Puerto Plata. The disease could very well affect the DR’s RD$230-million coconut agro-industry, with warnings being issued from the Dominican Institute of Agrarian and Forestry Research (IDIAF), as reported in …

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In spite of all of the problems suffered by the public health system over the past year, UNICEF has announced that infant mortality has decreased in the Dominican Republic. At a rate of 32 deaths before the age of five for every 1,000 live births, a significant reduction from the 42/1000 reported in 2000 is …

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