2006 – Page 6

DR1 wishes all its readers a Merry Christmas. Check out the Calendar section for where to go for Christmas partying, see http://www.dr1.com/calendar And enjoy a taste of Dominican Christmas at Bon ice cream stores nationwide. On the occasion of Christmas, the company has launched its Ilusion Navidena flavor, a delicious creamy blend of rum raisin …

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Dominican Republic have reached an agreement on the IMF’s program for 2007. According to a brief note from the Dominican Central Bank, IMF country representative Eric Offerdahl said that the IMF is confident that they will see important advances in the implementation of a series of policy measures. …

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After nine tries and a six-hour meeting, the President and members of various Dominican economic sectors finally put their signatures to an agreement that will allow for the start up of Family Health Insurance under the Social Security System. The agreement included the re-convening of the National Council for Social Security and the nomination of …

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Reporter Kleiner Lopez, who works for Diario Libre, gives an insiders’ look at the meeting that resulted in the signing of the social security agreement. According to Lopez, the meeting ended at 11pm, and some of the signatories had complained that Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado had kept them at work with just candy drops and …

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The Senate of the Dominican Republic passed the President’s tax correction proposals last night with some variations on the original suggestions. With neither the PRD nor the PRSC senators present, the PLD-dominated Senate passed the proposals quite easily after making some alterations to the taxes on fuels, alcoholic beverages and gambling. Diesel fuel will be …

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Minister of Culture Rafael Lantigua has announced that the government plans to build a new National Library. The government closed the Plaza de la Cultura library for remodeling, but then decided that the library was too small. The construction of the new library has been entrusted to the Supervisory Office of Public Works of the …

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The Dominican Republic has become a jeepetocracy (yipetocracia), declares businessman Federico A. Martinez, in a contribution to the 19 December edition of Hoy newspaper. According to him, Dominicans change once they get behind the wheel of their luxury SUVs, known here as yipetas. He says that the individual then becomes “me and my yipeta”. He …

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Monday’s DR1 news reported that the government’s accounting office, the Chamber of Accounts (CC) magistrates, were clearing their desks as they awaited their inevitable substitution, so common in local politics. Last night, the other shoe dropped and, according to El Caribe, the Senate chose the new accountants who will supervise the governments spending. Accountant Andres …

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Paulo Herrera Maluf, spokesman for civil society group Participacion Ciudadana, warns that an intensification of the apparent power struggle between President Leonel Fernandez and his former Presidency Minister Danilo Medina for the PLD 2008 presidential nomination would prove very costly for the country. “These contenders will be strongly tempted to fund their aspirations using state …

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Business sectors are also concerned. On the occasion of an Association of Industries event, Federation of Industries president Ignacio Mendez told Hoy newspaper reporters that pre-candidacy campaigning has negative effects on government, when government officers give priority to the campaigning over their government roles. “That is an outrage and will continue being the fact that …

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