News – Page 7308

Three of the four sugar mills owned by the State Sugar Council (CEA) have been paralyzed for the last three days. Workers at the Consuelo, Porvenir and Río Haina mills had refused to work until the government made good on its repeated promises to deliver their back-pay. CEA delivered RD$27 million in owed salary to …

Read more…

The famous opera "Carmen" will be performed at the National Theater June 23, 25 and 27. The National Symphony Orchestra will play the opera’s music under the direction of maestro Carlos Piantini. The starring roles will be played by American mezzo soprano Angela Horn and Mexican tenor Armando Mora. Tickets for opening night on Wednesday …

Read more…

The DR women whipped Mexico but the DR men fell to a tough Cuban team in yesterday’s play in the Sixteenth Central American and Caribbean Basketball Tournament ("Centro-basket 1999"). The Tournament is being held in La Havana, Cuba. The Dominican women’s national selection team beat Mexico 65-51 on the basis of a very strong second …

Read more…

In a press conference called in Tuesday, Central Bank President Héctor Valdez Albizu announced that Bank figures show that the Dominican Republic grew 5.5% in the first quarter compared to a comparable period in 1998. As regards individual sectors, construction grew 27%, communications 14%, commerce 8%, hotels 4% and manufacturing 2%. The news daily Hoy …

Read more…

Industry and Commerce Minister Luis Manuel Bonetti strongly denied to reporters that the intellectual property (IP) provisions of the draft Market Order Code now before Congress in any way violates or falls short of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property ("TRIPs Agreement"). Last Friday in its report on the …

Read more…

The ink was hardly dry on Tuesday’s memorandum to elevate diplomatic relations between the DR and India to full ambassador level before a technical agreement was signed between the two on informatics. Under the agreement, India will help the DR build two "state-of-the-art" industrial parks focused on informatics, being referred to by Dominican officials as …

Read more…

Customs has decided to slash tariffs on music compact discs (CDs) some 300%, not only to lower the cost of CDs to the consumer but also to discourage piracy. [Piracy often occurs when retailers seek cheap alternatives to legitimate distributors.] Prior to the action, CDs faced a stiff US$5 tariff; now they are assessed US$1.72. …

Read more…

Customs Director Miguel Cocco announced this week that his organization will soon auction off 30 transport containers full of household appliances ("electro-domésticos") seized by Customs for import irregularities or failure to pay tariffs. The appliances will be auctioned off openly in an event at San Isidro Air Force Base. Cocco asserted that this step proves …

Read more…

On Tuesday night the Senate unanimously selected the former Deputy for Altagracia Province, Dr. Ricardo Sánchez de la Rosa (Reformist-Social Christian Party PRSC), to fill the empty seat left by Amable Aristy Castro (PRSC) when he became Secretary-General of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD). As is the tradition, the party that had won the vacant …

Read more…

The Chamber of Deputies yesterday approved a bill to expand the membership of the Central Election Board (JCE) from five to seven. The measure, sent over last week by the Senate as part of an effort to put into law an agreement reached by the tripartite political dialogue, is expected to become law almost immediately …

Read more…