2005 – Page 49

No agreement was reached during a meeting between top PRD representatives and the government’s economic team regarding the proposed tax reform bill in Congress. The bill is meant to identify new sources for the collection of more than RD$30 billion that the government will stop receiving when DR-CAFTA comes into effect on 1 January 2006. …

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Puerto Rican Secretary of Economic Development, Jorge Silva-Puras believes that island’s trade with the DR would increase by more than US$3 billion as soon as DR-CAFTA comes into effect on 1 January 2006. According to Listin Diario, Silva-Puras spoke after visiting the Senate together with Puerto Rican officials and lawmakers. He said that trade between …

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The rising demand for judicial services has motivated the Supreme Court of Justice to increase all the Judicial Branch departments’ working schedule. According to Listin Diario, judicial services will be offered from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm starting from Monday, 31 October 2005, a one-hour increase from the previous schedule, which lasted until 3:30 pm. …

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Cementos Dominicanos (Domicen), the largest and most modern Portland cement and clinker plant in the Caribbean region, built at a cost of over US$113.5 million by Italian and Dominican investors, was inaugurated yesterday by President Leonel Fernandez in Sabana Grande de Palenque, San Cristobal Province. Listin Diario reports that the plant has a production capacity …

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Last night, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez said he had decided to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Classic Championship next March, and that this only needs to be confirmed by Major League Commissioner Bud Selig. “I have told Selig and he knows where I stand: one hundred percent Dominican”, said …

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Aristides Fernandez Zucco was fired from his job as president of the Dominican Refinery (REFIDOMSA) yesterday evening by President Leonel Fernandez (no relation). President Fernandez sent out Decree 576-05 yesterday afternoon, replacing Fernandez Zucco with the Presidential advisor on energy matters, Eduardo Rodriguez. This comes after dozens of young people were hospitalized after Monday’s leak …

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The Dominican ambassador to the United States of America, Flavio Dario Espinal, told a select group of newspaper editors that the DR-CAFTA agreement is a positive step because it consolidates the preferential tariffs that the United States had unilaterally granted to the Caribbean region. He said that this is a time when reciprocity was in …

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Radhames Segura, vice-president of the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electric Companies (CDEEE), has said that there is “no immediate way out of the electricity crisis,” and that the government is not disregarding the possibility of intervening in the Ede-Este distribution company. Segura admitted that “the public is receiving very expensive electricity, and they are not …

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A lot of people have thought about this, but it was Ernesto Vilalta who spoke to the press. Vilalta, the president of the Herrera Industrial Association (AEIH), warned that the CDEEE, the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electric Companies, was taking some major risks in its attempt to acquire 1200 megawatts of coal-fired electric energy. Vilalta …

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Magistrate Luis Arias, the head of the Central Electoral Board announced yesterday that the JCE would allow overseas Dominicans to vote in the May 2006 congressional and municipal elections. Arias said that the full panel of the JCE magistrates approved the measure, since overseas voters are already registered in special voter registration rolls. As such, …

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