2005 – Page 106

The government and the people will defeat crime, at least according to President Fernandez. The President, speaking in the hotbed of juvenile delinquency, Capotillo, said that together with the public’s help, he and his government would fight delinquency and crime. He told the people of Capotillo that he would push for educational solutions and several …

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Over the weekend the entire territory of the Dominican Republic suffered a series of three major blackouts. Saturday’s papers talked about the second blackout in two days and headlines in Sunday’ papers reported the third massive blackout. At 10:45 Saturday morning, the system collapsed for the third time as mechanics were working on one of …

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President Leonel Fernandez has appointed sociologist Julio Ortega Tous to the post of ambassador at the service of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, responsible for trade negotiations. Previously, he was the president of the economic advisors council of the Presidency. He had a prominent role in the restructuring of the foreign debt and that of …

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The DR-CAFTA agreement does not prohibit the government from assisting small and medium sized businesses. This means that in the future, the Dominican Republic can protect, reserve, foster or subsidize small businesses in order for them to remain competitive with similar entities from the Central American region. The news came out during the Workshop on …

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As most readers already know, fuel prices hit an all-time high on Saturday as regular gasoline went up RD$$5.70 a gallon, premium rose by RD$4.30 and regular diesel fuel rose by RD$1.30. At RD$112.20 per gallon, and the dollar pegged at about RD$29.00 to the US dollar, consumers are paying much more than ever before. …

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The Dominican hotel sector, as represented by ASONAHORES, the association of hotels and restaurants, is willing to forego the privileges it receives under the Tourism Incentive Law 158-01 if these privileges are granted just to those hotels and services that are located in the least developed tourism areas. According to El Caribe, this could happen …

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Tourism businessman Frank Rainieri of the Punta Cana Group has been very vocal in advocating that the fiscal reform set to go before Congress should serve as a tool for fostering national development. In an interview with Cesar Medina on Channel 9, Rainieri said that what has been drawn up so far is merely a …

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The once-ubiquitous beeper’s days are numbered. As of 27 August Verizon will discontinue their beeper service and Tricom is not accepting new clients for the localizer service. We now have to bid adieu to the alpha-numeric messages, the “beeper girls”, the mini-messages, and, someday perhaps, the “beeper dance”, a merengue that was created from the …

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The Canadian government announced the appointment of Alvin Curling as the new Canadian ambassador to the Dominican Republic on 19 August. He succeeds Adam Blackwell. Curling is a graduate in business administration from the University of Technology in Jamaica in 1961, where he studied prior to moving to Canada. Curling was first elected to the …

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Over 170 political parties are seeking official recognition from the Central Electoral Board (JCE). By the time elections roll around in May 2006, the total could be as high as 200, all of whom are seeking official recognition, and of course, official funds, to run in the municipal and congressional elections. The group includes all …

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