2007 – Page 111

If you thought his career was over, you couldn’t have been more wrong. Dominican pitcher Pedro Martinez made his first major league appearance of the year at Shea Stadium yesterday and didn’t disappoint. Martinez, who hadn’t pitched since last September after undergoing career-threatening shoulder surgery, pitched five innings, giving up five hits and three runs …

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The President officially announced the start of the Family Health Program (SFS) on a nationwide basis last Friday evening. On Saturday, as many predicted, there were serious hiccups throughout the system. According to El Caribe, there were displacements, illegal charges, a lack of the proper paperwork and confusion at several centers visited by its reporter, …

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President Leonel Fernandez’s 22-year old daughter has been released from the Gynecological and Obstetrics Center where she had been receiving treatment since last week. After an ovarian cyst was removed, the doctors found symptoms of pneumonia and the young woman was moved into the ICU where the condition was stabilized. Upon her discharge on Sunday, …

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Members of the United States Navy are currently training more than 100 of their Dominican counterparts on the use of “swift boats” to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal migration. The Navy personnel are part of the crew of the HSV-2 Swift, a very high-speed vessel with a triple hull. The ship is docked at …

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The preliminary study from the Central Bank on the performance of the Dominican economy during the first half of 2007 reveals the existence of an important deficit in the balance of payments accounts. These are the accounts that track exports and imports as well as interests, dividends and remittances, among other things. According to an …

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Hector Guilliani Cury, head of the Ministry of Foreign Relations’ Intelligence Unit, proposes that the DR should grant the same preferential treatment to Europe that the USA receives under the DR-CAFTA agreement. Motor vehicles, electronic appliances and all products manufactured in Europe, while not in the DR, would then receive duty-free and quota-free access, entering …

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Economist Roberto Despradel, private sector trade representative for trade negotiations, writes in today’s El Caribe about the way in which the DR has been the big loser in the FTA signed between five Central American countries and the DR that went into effect in 2000. Despradel attributes the lame exporting activity to the contrast between …

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The Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA) has issued its report on the Dominican court system for 2006-2007, according to Diario Libre. Justice Studies Center of the Americas/Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Americas, Santiago, is a Chile-based agency funded through the Organization of American States and focused on issues of justice-system reform …

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From 2005 until 31 July 2007, 11,255 new small businesses were opened. During the same period 2, 673 small businesses closed down. This news comes from the Yellow Pages’ Economic Index (IEPA) but the reasons for the closures are not given. Pharmacies were, by far, the category where the largest number of new businesses opened, …

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Dominican “light” beer is gaining favor among local consumers. Since Presidente launched its light version, Dominicans have been ordering more and more. An interview in Listin Diario with Martin Buompadre, marketing director for AmBev Dominicana, explains that the Dominican light beer is actually not light for other markets. While in other parts of the world …

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