2008 – Page 227

The chief executives of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Asonahores) broke their fast with editors of El Caribe newspaper yesterday morning. Their conversation focused on the serious issues facing Dominican tourism in the current energy crisis. Luis Lopez and Arturo Villanueva explained that energy accounts for 20% of the cost of a room …

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The Ministry of Environment has confirmed that 35 million square meters in the municipality of Higuey are not available for tourism development. The Ministry of Environment disputes the go-ahead for hotel construction in the area that had been granted by the Ministry of Tourism to Spanish investors. The Ministry of Environment says that the property …

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The National Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE) has probably outlived its usefulness. Created by the late President Joaquin Balaguer nearly 40 years ago, the institution has become little more than a warehouse for employees with little or nothing to do. The Listin Diario says that 87% of the budget goes towards the payroll of 3,000 employees. …

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Anders Alm, Ikea’s director for the Canary Islands and the Dominican Republic, says that the opening of a branch of Ikea in Santo Domingo is just a sampling of what the chain has in mind for Latin America. Alm said that Ikea has 260 stores in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US, but the Santo …

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Farmers are facing a 24% reduction in the amount of credit that is available to them. That, however, is not all. They are also facing price increases in everything that goes into producing a crop. According to Listin Diario’s Jairon Severino, farming supplies have increased by anywhere between 40% and 119% over the past 15 …

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As anyone who has ever been to the New York Port Authority Terminal in New York City at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue knows, there is a lot of business to be done at a bus stop. This is also the case in the Dominican Republic, although to a less grandiose scale. This is especially …

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Eight years after the United States put a stop on Dominican meat imports, the Dominican Republic is still waiting to get a new federal license to export meat to the US. Almost every year since then, there have been announcements to the effect that the ban was being lifted and that meat exports would be …

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The case of the Sun Land Corporation and US$130 million is not on the Supreme Court agenda, according to magistrate Julio Ibarra Rios. The Sun Land case deals with the government taking on US$130 million in foreign debt without congressional approval. According to a report in Listin Diario, Ibarra Rios says that the case has …

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Five police officers have been fired for negligence in the line of duty, and penalties were imposed on a further five officers. The men were fired for their involvement in the death of seven civilians on Charles de Gaulle Avenue in the Campo Bello sector in Santo Domingo East and four civilians and a Police …

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The Emergency Operations Center (COE) has maintained its Red Alert for Monsignor Nouel and La Vega provinces, calling on residents to be very aware of the risk of floods and landslides. A further eleven other provinces are under Green Alert: Santo Domingo, Samana, Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Santiago, Espaillat, Duarte (especially the Lower Yuna Basin), Puerto …

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