President Leonel Fernandez inaugurated on Friday, 8 February a landing strip at the Cueva de las Maravillas. The underground attraction is less than a half an hour drive for travelers staying in Juan Dolio and La Romana resorts, but 2-1/2 hour from Punta Cana and a 5-hour drive from Puerto Plata. The RD$80 million airfield will facilitate that tourists from Puerto Plata and Punta Cana can visit the cave on board small planes that can now land within walking distance from the attraction.
The Dominican government spent a little more in 2007 than in 2006, oh just a little bit: Like RD$33 billion more. This represented a 17% increase in its expenditure, according to the Department of Economic Studies at the Ministry of Hacienda. Most of the new spending was centered in running or current expenses rather than capital expenditures.
The Dominican government is giving away RD$3,000 per month to more than 100,000 people, according to statements made by the Vice President Rafael Alburquerque. According to Alburquerque, the government launched a program called "vamo' arriba" (properly: Vamos arriba - Let's go!) in June 2007, and to date, more than 100,000 people have benefited from it. The Vice President said that he would not call it a "work creation" program but rather one of "conditioned transfers" whereby a person receives RD$3,000 for three months in exchange for community service, such as cleaning canals for the Agrarian Reform Program. According to Diario Libre, the program receives RD$240 million each month.
The Central Electoral Board (JCE) is looking for a way out of the mess that started in Punta Cana where "marriages" were celebrated by unscrupulous JCE employees who are not legally authorized to perform such ceremonies. The JCE is looking for a way to legalize these marriages, despite the irregularity, so as not to affect the tourists.
According to Diario Libre, the "mafia" that organized the marriage ceremonies for tourists celebrated as many as 200 "weddings" in just one day, earning profits worth over RD$1.0 million in under 24 hours. Preliminary investigations by the JCE's Department of Inspection and Security together with the National Investigation Division (DNI) reveals that JCE employees in Higuey passed themselves off as Civil Registrars for years, tricking thousands of tourists with illegal marriages that are not on the JCE books. Late last week, the chief magistrate of the JCE Administrative Chamber, Roberto Rosario, told reporters that the board would find a "solution" to the issue of these tourists who were misled into believing that they had been married by civil registrars.
Specialists are listing the negative effects that the Sun Land affair is projecting around the world. While President Fernandez has declared the case "closed", echoes from leading brokerage firms indicate the contrary.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it placed its 'B+' long- and 'B' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the Dominican Republic on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CreditWatch placement reflects uncertainty surrounding promissory notes due between March and July 2008, including the possibility that they will not be paid because they were issued illegally. The matter highlights institutional weakness, which is the key rating constraint on the Dominican Republic.
In a press release, Standard & Poor's credit analyst Richard Francis explained Standard & Poor's credit analyst Richard Francis explained that the outstanding promissory notes are part of a series totaling US$130 million (0.3% of GDP) issued over the course of 2006 to SunLand Corporation and sold to other investors. Arrears arose in September of 2007, and while these notes have now been brought current, there is a substantial risk that the four remaining notes in the amount of nearly US$6.8 million each and due in March, April, June, and July of 2008 might not be paid on time, given question that have arisen over their legality. The Dominican Republic has a history of poor debt management and lack of transparency. Furthermore, this incident calls into question the integrity of the fiscal accounts.
According to Dominican Law 6-06 on Public Credit, all financial obligations must be approved by Congress and signed by the Minister of Finance in addition to undergoing several other procedures, such as registration with the Office of Public Credit. None of these procedures appears to have been followed in the SunLand deal, leading to the question of legality under Dominican law, as reported by the firm.
"While the government has undertaken reform aimed at institutional strengthening in such areas as debt management and financial supervision, the SunLand deal underscores the continued limitations in the implementation of this reform. Government financing is likely to become more costly if these issues persist," Mr. Francis said.
Standard & Poor's indicates that it expects to resolve the CreditWatch placement when there is clarification of the legality of the promissory notes, the government's intentions with regard to payment, and the impact this incident will have on the government's ability to tap international markets.
The executive vice-president of the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electricity Companies (CDEEE), Radhames Segura, shushed comments on the recent report from the Santiago Commission, saying that it was politically-motivated since many of the commission's members are linked to the PRD. The report sharply criticized the handling of the dam floodgates during the 48-hour period in the run up to the tragic events of 11-12 December last. According to Hoy newspaper, the commission denied that the dam was near collapse and therefore the sudden opening of the gates was unnecessary, and recommended revising the operation manuals for the country's dams. The report also suggests that the CDEEE entity in charge of hydro-electric production should not take part in the operation of the dam during storms.
The city of Santo Domingo de Guzman, the capital of the Dominican Republic, will be the site of the XX Summit Meeting of Heads of State and heads of Governments next 4-7 March. The summit will deal with issues concerning energy, development and disaster relief. The meeting will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Relations building. In July 2007, the city was host to the Rio Group's Ministerial Summit, in a joint effort with the European Union. At that time, some EUR2,700 were pledged in donations and economic assistance to Latin America.
As overseas prices for raw materials go up, so do the prices for locally produced goods. According to the economic section of Hoy newspaper, the sudden increase in price for a series of raw materials has affected many of the Dominican Republic's items of mass consumption. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) points out that cereal prices have reached record levels recently, and the expectation is that the trend will continue into 2008. These raw materials include soybean oil, which went from US$651 a ton in September 2007 to US$1,148 a ton in January 2008.
Dominican poultry producers have announced that they will be holding more dramatic protests to draw attention to their plight as a result of Haiti's import ban on chicken and eggs. The president of the Moca and Licey Poultry Producers Association, Ambiorix Cabrera, announced a march on the Presidential Palace on 13 March unless the government steps in and purchases the resulting surplus of poultry and eggs. The producers rejected the price offered by the government as a "bad joke" and said that if the government does not come up with a better offer, they will march on the Presidential Palace on the 13th. If that does not work, the poultry farmers will try to shut down Moca and Licey on 20 March. The difference between what the producers want and what the government is offering is not more than one peso per pound. However, the farmers' plight has also brought transport unions into the fray, as well as the Catholic Church. Blas Peralta of the Fenetrado union told reporters from Diario Libre that, "if we have to shut down the ports across the country, we will do it."
With 134 container loads still awaiting clearance on the docks, the Dominican Republic still saw a 258% increase in metal exports last year. The Center for Exports and Investments (CEI-RD) has a commission currently working on the cases of all of those containers. Lead exports rose by over US$400,000; aluminum went up slightly; and copper increased by US$300,000. Overall, metal exports reached US$79 million in 2007, up from US$22 million the previous year.
The United States has withdrawn extradition requests for 19 people who were being sought by the courts for cases involving drug trafficking, robbery and murder, among other crimes. According to a report in El Caribe, the withdrawal comes as a result of changes in the circumstances in the judicial process. The news will be sent to the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court for final disposition, and so that the arrest warrants for these individuals can be withdrawn.
The National Police have a team looking for jobs for Dominicans who have been repatriated after losing their citizenship or residency in the United States for criminal offenses. According to El Caribe, the data available to the police shows that less than 1% of people returned to the DR have also returned to a life of violent crime. A vast majority were involved with drugs in some way and only 122 of the 18,000 were involved in violent crimes. The police group provides psychological counseling for people who have been repatriated, especially in the face of the frustration and social trauma that they suffer. The police maintain a Registry and Control of Repatriates whose efforts are guided to provide assistance and protection for these individuals. In some cases, people who have been sent to the DR have been found to be innocent. Many of the cases involve minor offenses like jumping subway tollbooths or writing graffiti.
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 the second Grammy that Guerra has won as leader of his group 4:40; he won a Grammy for his Bachata Rosa album back in 1991.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.