2006 – Page 3

President Leonel Fernandez has appointed Dr. Fernando Caamano as new Superintendent of Health and Dr. Ana Ilse Mena as new general manager of the Consejo Nacional de Securidad Social (CNSS), the social security council. The new officers replace Dr. Bernardo Defillo and Arismendi Diaz Santana, respectively. At the same time, the National Council of Social …

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The creation of a new Ministry of the Treasury (Secretaria de Hacienda) was approved in Thursday, 21 December’s congressional session and is only pending passage by the Executive Branch. The new ministry will merge the departments of Customs, Taxes, Budget and the Ministry of Finance in one entity. The new ministry is a requirement of …

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The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved the disbursement of US$40 million as part of the US$100 million program called “Consolidation of Financial Reforms”. The money will be used to pay for fuel imports and foreign debts. A recent US$50 million disbursement was used to pay the electricity subsidy. Central Bank officials told Hoy reporters …

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The Executive Branch sent a bill to Congress on Thursday, 21 December aimed at transferring RD$6.6 billion from this year’s budget. The transfers will reduce the Education budget by $854 million, Public Health by RD$706.9 million, the Presidency by RD$2.3 billion, Finance by RD$1.37 billion and Agriculture by RD$150 million. Of these funds, the Presidency …

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The Dominican Republic is the only country in Latin America that spends less than 2% of its Gross Domestic Product on education, according to the recently released UNESCO 2007 Education For All Global Monitoring Report. The DR’s public investment in education is 1.2%. Uruguay and El Salvador are also at the bottom of the list …

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The decrees that limit the sales hours of alcoholic beverages in most of the Dominican Republic issued last July were relaxed by decree for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The decree also prohibits heavy goods vehicles from using the nation’s roadways. According to Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda, anti-crime efforts over the holidays …

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The new head of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman, has told reporters from Listin Diario that the country was “plagued” by people using false identification papers. In general, the practice is to substitute one person for another. Castanos said that international criminals and drug traffickers have managed to obtain documents through …

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The Dominican Republic has a US$690 million trade deficit in spite of increasing its exports. The deficit has increased continually since 1970. In 2005 the Dominican Republic exported US$1.08 billion in traditional, non-traditional and mining exports. If only these exports were calculated, the trade deficit would be US$5.425 billion. However, the industrial free zones exported …

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In an interview with Hoy, Fernando Capellan, president of the largest Dominican free zone conglomerate, Grupo M, highlights the fact that the main obstacles to the wellbeing of Dominican apparel companies come from within. He says that the Chinese effect on Dominican exports is already past us, and that any competitiveness problems are internal. He …

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A total of 17 people perished over the Christmas weekend. There were 14 deaths and 396 injuries as a result of traffic-related accidents, and of these, 175 were motorcycle victims, and 62 in other motorized transport. Logically, most of the victims were in Santo Domingo and Santiago. There was one fatality from a fireworks accident, …

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