2013 – Page 17

The Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) has announced that the contract for the construction of two coal-fired 384.9 MW power plants has been granted to the consortium made up by Constructora Norberto Odebrecht S.A., Technimont S.A and Ingenieria Estrella SRL. The plants will cost US$1.94 billion, as reported in Diario Libre.

The gradual increases in taxation on food in the Dominican Republic continues with the ITBIS tax on sugar, coffee, yoghurt, chocolate, margarine and oil, as well as other items, increasing from the present 8% to 11% in January 2014. All these products were tax-free before the November 2012 fiscal reform.

The new ambassadors to the Dominican Republic from Colombia, the United States, Bahamas, Portugal and Belgium are now officially in place. President Danilo Medina received their letters of accreditation yesterday, Monday 9 December and spoke briefly to Roberto Garcia Marquez from Colombia, James Walter Brewster from the United States, Godfrey Gordon Rolle from the Bahamas, …

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A German multinational company, Caelum, is disputing the winner of the tender for processing the new identity cards (cedula) saying that there have been violations of the law and other irregularities in the process. Lawyer Francisco Alvarez submitted a complaint against the General Secretary of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) yesterday, Monday 9 December, stating …

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The Dominican Republic Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) has announced the deployment of 3,124km of fiber-optic cables in the northern and western regions of the country, according to Listin Diario. The government plans to spend US$64 million over a period of five years on a fiber-optic backbone, in order to extend the network to 28% of the …

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A project to rescue and protect old ships and galleons that have sunk off the Dominican coast is being launched by an underwater marine exploration company, which will be looking for three ships used by Christopher Columbus when he discovered America in 1492. Los Angeles-based Nautical Research and Recovery, together with their Dominican associates will …

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Causing major disruptions to the neighborhood of La Esperilla where the Ibero-American Park is located, Mayor Roberto Salcedo’s Bright Christmas park, with its 27 million little lights adorning a Christmas recreation, has been receiving raves and blasts. Diario Libre editor Ines Aizpun writes: “I consider it an urban-planning error to concentrate it in one single …

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Writing for USNews, Kathleen Peddicord includes Sosua/Cabarete, Dominican Republic in her list of top 10 beach places for retirement around the world. “Where the verdant green jungle hills slope into the crystal-blue waters off the north coast of the Dominican Republic rest the sand-fringed towns of Sosua and neighboring Cabarete. These are beachfront utopias. There …

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Yesterday, Monday 9 December, the authorities confiscated some 265 kilograms of pure cocaine found inside a container on a ship that had arrived from Peru and was docked at the Caucedo Port. Six people have been arrested. The operation involved the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), the Dominican Navy (ARD) the Dominican Army (ERD) the …

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A mob has robbed a body from the ER at the Jaime Mota Hospital in Barahona, where the local prosecutor recently said that this has happened before in circumstances that make it difficult to investigate crimes. The body of Saulo Enis Timas, aged 29, who had been shot in the abdomen from a moving car …

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