2005 – Page 267

The hope that the peso’s recovery would lead to a decline in prices has become but A “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as reported in Diario Libre today. While some prices have indeed gone down, some have stayed at the same levels as when the dollar was at RD$55 on the exchange market. Pasta has even increased …

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The Aguilas Cibaenas took a step closer to the finals last night as they came from behind to defeat the Estrellas Orientales 8-5 in the Cibao Baseball Stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros. The game, interrupted by a blackout for 30 minutes during the 7th inning, was a see-saw battle from the start. The Estrellas, …

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The Ministry of Education launched a nationwide program to distribute 150,000 backpacks to public school children this week. The RD$42 million program began at the La Altagracia public school in Herrera, near the city of Santo Domingo, where school children from first to fourth grade received backpacks with four notebooks, pencils, colored pencils, paste, eraser, …

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In 2003 the evasion of the local sales tax, or ITBIS, reached 42.8%, according to a report released by the Tax Department (DGII). El Caribe newspaper says that the department has a plan to cut evasion by 10% in 2005. Juan Hernandez, director of the department, said that evasion had gone up after reaching a …

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The late former President Jacobo Majluta has not been allowed to rest in peace. A four-lane avenue, bordering a northern section of Santo Domingo, was named in his memory. Per kilometer, however, it is by far the most costly highway ever built in the Dominican Republic. The Fernandez administration announced that another RD$630 million would …

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The president of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications, Jose Rafael Vargas, said that the government cannot intervene on behalf of consumers affected by the high telecom charges. Last year, the telecom companies argued that they were forced to increase their rates because their costs were affected by the pronounced depreciation of the peso. In contrast, …

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Diario Libre comments today that talks between the Dominican Medical College (CMD) and the government over wage increases collapsed over the issue of productivity. According to the back page editorial of the newspaper, the talks were suspended when the government asked to peg wage increases to productivity and efficiency benchmarks for individual physicians, which would …

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Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez is confident that the southwest’s time has come, with a specific focus on Pedernales. News reports say that World Tourism Organization experts are here to deliver a master plan for the region’s development by April 2005. He expects that hotel construction should begin in December of this year and that 3,500 …

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Counterpart International, the Washington D.C.-based international development organization, has joined hands with the Dominican Republic’s Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (FUNGLODE) with a two-year agreement to develop projects using sustainable tourism and community development to reduce poverty. The agreement, signed last week in the Dominican capital, focuses on youth and media training, biodiversity conservation …

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While bank-lending rates have declined recently, anyone using a credit card is not getting any sympathy from the banks. The Listin Diario reports that the average monthly credit charge is a whopping 6.44%, with some banks charging up to 8%. The newspaper indicates that more than 463,000 credit card-holders returned their cards last year, due …

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