2008 – Page 309

Singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra has won yet another Grammy, after a haul of five awards at last November’s Latin Grammy Awards ceremony. This time he won the Grammy for the Best Tropical album, “La llave de mi corazon” (The Key to My Heart) during the celebration of the 50th Grammy Awards. This is …

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President Leonel Fernandez has signed Law 4-08, effectively creating a new bureaucracy for government bureaucracy. The new Ministry of Public Administration will regulate government employees, strengthen public administration institutions, develop electronic government and evaluate government institutions. Ramon Ventura Camejo, formerly the director at the National Planning Office (ONAP), has been appointed to head the new …

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Industry and Commerce Minister Melanio Paredes says that the government will maintain its fuel subsidies on the public transport sector until these can be equipped with natural gas fuel conversion chip systems. This news follows the Fenatrano bus union’s bus strike in demand of the continued subsidy on fuels for the sector yesterday. Fenatrano leader …

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Western Michigan Institute has formalized an agreement with the DR that will allow scores of Dominican students to study at the university through government sponsored scholarship programs. The initial stages of the agreement were signed on 7 January and finalized on 23 January. In all, 60 Dominican students have registered as undergraduates for the Spring …

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The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode) unveiled the Ara Journal of Tourism Research yesterday. The magazine presents research on topics related to sustainable tourism development. President Leonel Fernandez was present at the event. The first issue features papers on tourism in Belize and Malta, the concept of co-creation in tourism and the Quality …

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In December 2007 the Santo Domingo metro project received more money for capital investments than 10 ministries combined. Education (RD$405.3M), Environment (RD$37.1M), Agriculture (RD$6M), Industry and Commerce (RD$18.5M), Armed Forces (RD$588,410M), Labor (RD$2.8M), Sports (RD$14.3M), Higher Education (RD$107.5M), the Presidential Administrative Ministry (RD$8.5M) and the National Housing Department-INVI (RD$184.1M) combined received less money than the …

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Eminent sociologist Rosario Espinal explains in Hoy that the ruling PLD party has replaced Juan Bosch’s utopian vision for social change with the conservative Balaguer pragmatism that has dominated Dominican politics for the past 40 years. Espinal says that as a result many have entered politics and the ranks of the PLD as a way …

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The PRD says that there is no need to sign a gentlemen’s agreement between the country’s political parties as a way of elevating the quality of campaign debates. The PRD is rejecting the proposal made by the PLD and it is not clear whether they will attend a summit scheduled by the Central Electoral Board …

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According to Licelot Bello Dotel, president of the Ear, Nose and Throat Society, her members have seen an increase in hearing problems among the Dominican population, and loud music is partly to blame. She said that the noise levels are extremely high and there has been an increase of degenerative hearing problems as a result …

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Earlier this week, the Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso announced that an ambitious ethanol project was being planned by the Romana Fanjul Group and the Vicini Group, which together account for most of the country’s sugar exports. The project will be implemented on sugar lands to be leased from the Dominican state and private …

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