The newly elected President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet will spend Saturday in the Dominican Republic, as part of a tour that is taking her to the United States, Haiti and Jamaica. She is scheduled to meet with President Fernandez in his office at the Presidential Palace at 7:00pm. This will be followed by a press conference and a dinner in her honor at the Presidential Palace's Las Cariatides hall.
Eddy Martinez, who heads the Center for Foreign Investment (CEI-RD) as well as the Cybernetic Park in Boca Chica, says that within 10 to 12 years 50% of the value of Dominican exports will come from the cyber-park. The minister told reporters that this bonanza would come as a result of hi-tech developments and new business entrepreneurs. As reported in the Economic Section of Listin Diario, Martinez says that looking at all of the exports of the country and including the free zones, the industrial clusters, agriculture and manufacturers and their projected growth, it is feasible that within 10 to 12 years 50% of total export value will come from the park. He said that currently the Dominican Republic is exporting US$5 billion, and that in ten years this should double, and the government is betting that US$5 billion should come from the Cybernetic Park itself. Martinez maintained that what is happening is that the park is going after exports of goods and services based on innovation, technology and creativity, much like the case of Taiwan.
The Disputes Chamber of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) has now issued almost all the remaining decisions that resolved challenges about results stemming from the 16 May elections. However, there are still 11 cases pending a final decision. According to Diario Libre the chamber handed down 49 congressional decisions and 38 municipal decisions. The congressional decisions were concerned with deputies and the municipal decisions were about city council members and their reserves.
The most famous cases were those related to the request made by PRD deputy from La Romana, Ramon Agramonte, who demanded a recount. His case was dismissed. Another case that made the headlines was that of Licelot Marte de Barrios and it, too, was rejected. The other big case was the dispute between PLD deputies Pedro Antonio Caro and Manuel Antonio Paula. In this case, Caro won.
Somewhat different from the previous decisions that changed not a letter from Bulletin #18, this time the magistrates overturned the election of Antonio Beruel Vasquez in favor of Luis Ramon Pena, after a recount of 33 polling stations.
The remaining 11 cases have been decided but the lack of some of the magistrate's signatures has prevented them from being released to the public.
The JCE established that the PLD won 96 deputy seats, the PRD 60 and the PRSC 22, thus the ruling party will be majority in Congress. It has won 22 of 32 senate seats. The PRD will have 6 senate seats and the PRSC 4.
Diario Libre editor Adriano Miguel Tejada posted a very interesting editorial today. He cites the situation in Mogadishu, Somalia where Islamic fundamentalist rebels are trying to dislodge the warlords that control the nation. What Tejada cites as a possible lesson for the Dominican Republic is the fact that in Somalia there are, in fact, three different countries, but this reality has not impeded the creation of a lively telecommunication business that he calls "extraordinary." Tejada then quotes an airlines executive about this good business climate, and the executive said that in Somalia there was no corruption, "because there was no government!" Tejada then quoted Thomas Jefferson who said the "best government is the least government," because the government is a parasite that produces nothing and lives off the citizenry. The conclusion is that a larger government means less national wealth because it will need to get more money from the people to maintain more parasites. This editorial points out that all of the signals coming from the government are that it is increasing in size. The never-ending increases in the political divisions, the ever-growing number of people on the public payroll and the creativity in public spending all point to a larger government. And therefore, if we are to believe the Somali logic, there will be more corruption. You can express your opinion on this editorial by writing atejada@diariolibre.com
The Minister for Technical Affairs for the Presidency, Temistocles Montas, said yesterday that politics were the cause of the 2003 banking crisis that plunged the Dominican Republic into record breaking inflation and currency devaluation. Montas said that "banking supervision did not work in the past, and was one of the key elements in the banking crisis because actions from the Superintendent of Banks were influenced by politics and by political pressure from the Presidential Palace." Listin Diario reporters interviewed Montas yesterday at the Superintendent of Securities where he stated that because of the recent past, it was necessary to isolate the supervisory entities from political pressures. If this was not done, according to one of the President's closest advisors, things would not go well for the Dominican Republic and the country will have to face continual crisis.
A report by the World Bank (WB) and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) on poverty in the Dominican Republic suggests that the government has an area in which to create a new tax reform program which would imply widening the VAT tax base, a tax on interest earned on deposits of the wealthy and the strengthening of the collection of taxes through personal auditing. The document was developed by experts from the two international financial organizations in conjunction with the Ministry for Technical Affairs of the Presidency points out that the rich possess more than 50% of the uncollected income from the VAT exemptions. The report goes on to state that there is room to refine the last tax reform package further. The report also suggests looking at the income of self-employed individuals such as lawyers, doctors and accountants.
Other areas that the World Bank-IDB report looks at are the government subsidies for propane gas (LPG) and other social policies. The report says that 40% of the benefits of Promese (the medicine distribution program), Inespre (the food distribution program) and the LPG subsidy go to wealthy people, and only 20% go to the poor. The report recommends that the government focus on the very poorest and limit the subsidy to RD$250 per family per month. This would save the government 49% of its expenses, and increase the subsidy's social impact.
The World Bank's representative in the Dominican Republic, Christina Malmberg, has told reporters that the government opted for the most expensive option when they decided to build the metro. She said that there were other solutions that were just as efficient and much less expensive. Malmberg also criticized the low investment in education, and said that the government should make a big effort to improve the quality and the quantity of education in the DR. According to the official, there is a whole spectrum of investments that could have been made instead of the metro system. She cited the Trans-Millennium buses used in Bogota, Colombia and the example of Santiago, Chile. Malmberg responded to reporters from Hoy when they asked her how the WB felt about the billions of pesos being spent on the Santo Domingo metro system. She said that while transport was a major problem in Santo Domingo, "the government chose one of the most expensive solutions: the Metro." The banking executive continued: "of the several options, some, in our technical opinion, would have been less costly, with greater results and great value for the money invested."
The same World Bank report that suggested new taxes for the wealthy, also criticized the Dominican educational system as being highly deficient, particularly with regards to student retention and orderly progress through the grades. The Dominican track record is vastly inferior to the majority of Latin America with regards to its ability to translate the huge demand for education into adequate schools and the training needed for the labor market. The WB-IDB report says that the deficiency is reflected in the large number of students who repeat years. It states that the greatest challenge for the country is to understand and respond to the causes for repeating and the slow school progress. The country has "one of the worst levels of student retention and progress through the grades." As an example the reports shows that at nine years of age, the average student has been in school for 3.7 years but has accomplished only 2.2 years of school work. At 18 years of age, they have been in school for 11.5 years and only have 8.4 years of schooling. The study also points out that there is a very low return on investment in education and only a university education is reimbursed, but at a lower scale than the average for Latin America. A family that invests only in primary and secondary education will earn salaries that are among the lowest in the area. Primary education will, in rural areas, earn a little more than no schooling. In the cities, twelve years of education will earn 60% more than a lack of schooling. A university degree will earn 50% more than the high school degree. However, these salaries are well below the Latin American average.
26-year old Victor Nunez, a Dominican-born, naturalized Costa Rican citizen, will become the first Dominican ever to play in the world's largest sports spectacular, the World Cup. This is the first time a Dominican plays in the World Cup.
Nunez, nicknamed "El Mambo" by his teammates, will be a striker on the team from Costa Rica that is taking the field against Germany in the World Cup opening games. Nunez was the leading scorer during the first phase of the Costa Rican first division tournament. He was born in Santo Domingo but was taken to Costa Rica when he was eight years old. In Costa Rica he plays for the C.S. Cartagines team. For commentary on Nunez, see http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51122
The highest-ranking Hispanic elected official in the State of Maryland is now running for attorney general. He made a reputation for himself as a passionate crusader for the underprivileged working as federal prosecutor.
The Washington Post describes him as the underdog in the race, without the campaign financing of the lead contender.
He was elected to the Montgomery County Council on 5 November 2002 and served as Council president from 7 December 2004 through 6 December 2005.
A graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, he began his career in the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and rose through the ranks to become Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
During the last two years of the Clinton administration, he was director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. With the change of administration, he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Law.
See http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51085
Rear Admiral Ivan Pena Castillo has told the press that drug traffickers have spies inside the National Drug Control Department (DNCD) who provide them with advance warning about possible busts. He said that this makes their work more difficult, as reported in El Caribe. He said that when they are about to carry out a raid in a barrio, the drug traffickers have already been alerted. The DNCD recently reported a cache of 139 kilos of cocaine at Haina East Port that was intended for transport to Puerto Rico. The shipment of 125 packages was inside three bags in the interior of a container with sodium carbonate to be transported on board Caribbean Carrier. Pena said that they are working hard to purge the organization.
The DNCD also announced the arrest of 48-year old Simpson Coli Garfield, a Surinamese citizen, for attempting to smuggle 191 packets of cocaine in his stomach at Las Americas International Airport. This is a record number of packets carried by a "mule". He was taking an Iberia flight and his final destination was Holland.
After a series of insults, punches thrown, and slaps against the vehicle that transported Air Force colonel Pablo Leonel Velasquez to court, the magistrate kept the officer under arrest at the holding cells in Santo Domingo's Palace of Justice. The colonel was subjected to an interrogation session that lasted from 10:20 in the morning until 7:35 in the evening about his part in the murder of Major Jose Manuel Herran Mancebo last December. As reported in El Caribe, prosecutor Perfecto Acosta said that a decision was taken to leave the colonel in a holding cell at the Palace of Justice in accordance with the 24-hour prison warrant issued by the magistrate of the Third Court of Instruction, and today his office would seek further restraints on the officer. According to the prosecutor, "there is evidence that involves the colonel in the murder, which has the characteristics of a crime of passion." Because of the serious nature of the crime, the Justice Department will request the court to issue an order for preventive custody for the accused in order to preserve his personal safety.
Work is under way for the installation of air conditioning at the Santo Domingo Cathedral, as reported in El Caribe. Glass doors are being put in to keep the cool air inside. The first cathedral in the New World, the Catedral Santa Maria de la Encarnacion La Menor was completed in 1541 and received its charter as the Metropolitan Cathedral and First in the Indies from Pope Paul III following a request from King Charles V in 1546. Up until now, large fans have been used to cool the interior, but during the summer the heat can be intense.
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