Archive for March, 2019
Moscow, Russia.- The Dominican Republic continues to strengthen its position as the Caribbean leader in tourism, this is due to the successful promotion policy and the participation of the country in various events, this time at the International Tourism and Travel Fair ( MITT), which was held in Moscow, Russia.
The director of the Office of Tourism Promotion (OPT) in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Galina Lyssenko, said that the Russian-speaking market maintains its firm position among the three leading European destinations in sending tourists to the Dominican Republic, preferring it as their long distance favorite destination.
He revealed that 24,625 tourists arrived from Russia during the month of January of this year and 20, 977 in 2018, for an increase of 17.4%.
“The results of 2018 give us all the security of estimating a stable and high demand. For more than a decade, more than a million Russian-speaking tourists have visited the country, and more than half of them have traveled in the last two years. This is a living testimony that the interest towards the Dominican destination is constant and high, the inexhaustible diversity, beauty and tradition of our country continue to attract Russian tourists “, expressed Lyssenko.
The director of the OPT in Russia said that in terms of the achievements of the country’s tourism sector for 2018, the numbers speak for themselves, achieving an increase in the arrival of tourists, surpassing the forecasts of the World Health Organization. Tourism (UNWTO), which allowed the Dominican Republic to maintain its position as the leading destination for receptive tourism in Central America and the Caribbean.
At the conclave that took place at the “Expocentro” central trade fair complex in the city of Moscow, 8 co-participants attended the stand of the Dominican Republic (80 m2), among them are Be Live Hotels hotels, VIK Hotel Group, Ocean be H10 Hotels, and Princess Hotels & Resorts.
There were also present – Barceló Hotel Group, Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, Palladium Hotel Group, as well as the receptive tour-operator Travel Service West Indies SRL
Source: Notociasenn
Mar 30, 2019
PUERTO PLATA.- A 41-year-old American citizen died in the public hospital in Puerto Plata where he was admitted after receiving severe blows and fractures caused by the fall from the fourth floor of the hotel where he was staying in Sosúa.
The victim was identified as Anthony Alexander Schroeder who was a native of New York City, who arrived in the country as a tourist several days ago and stayed in Hotel Plaza located in El Batey sector of Sosúa.
The foreigner suffered the mishap that cost him his life on last Wednesday night, March 27, in what appears to be a suicide, Schroeder would have thrown himself from the balcony of his room on the fourth floor, crashing into the ground.
The incident was observed by the two Dominican ladies Karen and Suanny Gómez, who were also staying at the apartment hotel, they called the National 9-1-1 Emergency and Security System to attend the injured.
Anthony Alexander Schroeder died at Ricardo Limardo Hospital of Puerto Plata, his corpse was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) in Santiago for an autopsy.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Mar 30, 2019
PUERTO PLATA. – A talented and versatile young woman from Puerto Plata was invited to participate in the new contest Dominicana’s Got Talent, which is a televised competition – a talent show, to be held in Santo Domingo.
This is Erika Cristal Martínez Báez, who is the daughter of photojournalist Augusto Martínez (El Acucioso), who is based in New York after having worked for several years in Color Visión, TV Plata and on this website: www.puertoplatadigital.com .
Erika Cristal, who was born in Puerto Plata 24 years ago, has been invited to participate in the Open Casting of Dominicana’s Got Talent to be held on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at the National Conservatory of Music in the capital.
The young woman who has exhibited her artistic talent in the group of dancers on the television program “From Extreme to Extreme”, and she is currently studying Marketing career and works in the check-up of Las Americas International Airport.
Erika Cristal Martínez Báez is the granddaughter of the well-known musician and singer-songwriter Baldemiro Martínez (Mirito), and is the niece of Rudy Martínez, who won the First Festival of La Voz in 1986 at the now defunct cinema Rex.
Dominicana’s Got Talent is the Creole version of the popular American show America’s Got Talent that was originally aired on NBC television.
The platform receives singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other artists of all ages who compete for a great prize in cash, the amount has not yet been announced.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Mar 28, 2019
911 Emergency Service reported technical difficulties due to a “general incident” on Wednesday, 27 March 2019, with the collapse of the Altice telecom that services their mobile lines. The blackout affected voice and data services. The company acknowledged the problems and expressed in a press notice: “We are sorry for the inconvenience.”
The Altice mobile service collapse comes just a week after Claro telecom was affected by a more than an hour-and-half to three-hour blackout on their service. Claro reported this was due to a Ministry of Public Works contractor cutting sections of the Nagua-Río San Juan and Virellia-Puerto Plata optic fiber lines in the north.
Meanwhile, the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) says that it has requested a record on the duration and causes of the breakdown and corrective measures. Indotel has stated that it investigating the Altice case and is checking to see if the companies had taken preventive measures and instated corrective measures to avoid these blackouts.
Source: DR1, Elcaribe
Mar 28, 2019
Former Dominican ambassador in Washington, D.C., economist Bernardo Vega, points out that behind the alert by US Ambassador Robin Bernstein during a televised interview with Alicia Ortega, is the concern of the US government that the Manzanillo Port may be granted in concession to a Chinese company. The observations were made by Bernstein towards the end of the interview with Alicia Ortega on her perspective of the country after her first months in the country.
The Dominican government has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese government company to build a multimodal complex at the site of the Manzanillo Port in the northwest. The port is crucial for farm and manufacturing zone exports. Nevertheless, so far, in the 2019 budget, the Dominican government has only allotted funds to make small improvements to the port, not the expansion that the business community says is necessary.
In the interview, US Ambassador Robin Bernstein stressed the importance of the strategic assets of the country remaining in Dominican hands. She called for carefully analyzing contracts to not lose ownership of strategic assets. She observed the Dominican business sector wants to control the strategic assets. The Manzanillo Port MOU that revealed the possible concession of the port to Chinese interests was only known by the general public after the story broke when it had been covered by Chinese media and was picked up by a specialist journal.
Likewise, she alerted to the importance of not giving up cyberspace rights. Former OAS ambassador for the Dominican Republic, Roberto Alvarez has speculated that the government of China wants the Dominican Republic to sign rights for the installation of Chinese 5G network.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Mar 28, 2019
ASISA Research Group released findings of a March poll on Tuesday 26 March that shows that former President Leonel Fernández of the PLD leads in popularity with 47% acceptance, followed by Luis Abinader, from the Revolutionary Modern Party (PRM), who would garner 39% if the elections scheduled for May 2020 were held on the day of the survey. Of the 1, 205 respondents who were polled between 15 and 17 March 2019, 6% said they would not vote for any candidate and 5% abstained from answering.
The question they were asked was open: they were simply asked which candidate they would vote for, without being given a list. In the case of the PRM, among those who said they were party members, Abinader was the favorite with 79%, followed by former President Hipólito Mejía with 15%, his daughter Carolina Mejía with 4%, and National District Mayor David Collado with 2%.
Those who said they would vote in the PLD primaries, 56% said they would vote, another 20% said probably not but maybe yes, and 24% said they would not vote.
Of those who said they would vote in the 6 October 2019 primaries, 36% said they would vote for Leonel Fernández, 29% for President Danilo Medina, 14% for Vice President Margarita Cedeño, and 2% for Santiago Mayor Abel Martínez. Other PLD pre-candidates, senate president Reynaldo Pared Pérez, former Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito, former Education Minister Andrés Navarro, former Economy Minister Temístocles Montas, and former Interior & Police Minister Carlos Amarante Baret, each had 1%. 22% did not respond to pollsters.
Looking at other issues, 54% felt that the country was going in the wrong direction, with 42% saying it was going in the right direction and 6% did not answer.
Corruption was seen as the main problem in the country with 36%, followed by citizen safety 17%, unemployment 12%, high prices for essential products 5%, and control of Haitian immigration with 5%.
When it comes to the current government, 44% approved and 54% did not. The most negative perception came from Greater Santo Domingo, with 59% disapproval and the East with 57%.
President Medina was seen as positive by 56%. The most positive acts by the current government were seen as education with 59%, 911 system with 18%, surprise visits 9%, and new construction works 5%.
The negative aspects were seen as corruption within the government with 26%, following by inefficient officials staying being kept in their posts with 20%, lack of control of the cost of the consumer family basket with 13%, out of control crime with 10%, and immigration policy 9%.
73% of those polled rejected that the 2015 Constitution be amended to enable the second reelection of President Danilo Medina. 23% favored doing this. 4% did not respond to the question.
The poll has a plus/minus 3% margin of error.
Source: DR1, Elcaribe
Mar 28, 2019
Caribbean specialists meeting for the presentation of the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. looked into corruption, lack of political will, and absence of trust between the two countries as factors for the tense situation between both countries in trade and social issues, as Mark Schneider, former assistant administrator for USAID’s Latin American and Caribbean bureau, highlighted during the presentations on a study of transborder trade between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The specialists looked into the solutions that could serve as a catalyst for economic and social development on the premise that what is good for Haiti, is good for the Dominican Republic.
During the presentations, consultant David Lewis of Manchester Trade, advocated for Haiti and the Dominican Republic to organize trade relations between the DR and Haiti so as to lead to signing a bilateral free trade agreement in the near future. “The best way to fix this up is to set up the rule of law of a free trade agreement to actually get everything on the table, and then you implement it through all the institutionalities and procedures, and so on,” observed Lewis when presenting his views during the CSIS report rollout.
During the same event, Gabriel Verret, a former economic counselor to the President of Haiti, favored the signing of the FTA with the Dominican Republic. He said this should include sanitary and phytosanitary considerations, but would primarily open up both markets. “Just about anybody who produces anything wants to import it into the Dominican Republic, they could do it. And at year 10, Haiti will have to have reduced or removed its tariffs on such-and-such a thing. Those are things left to experts who negotiate free trade agreements. They know how to do this. You know, Ok, year five, year 10, year 15 and year 20,” he said during the meeting.
Verret explained that the best part, in addition to regularizing the issue of trade, would be that the FTA would be an incentive for investors to come and invest in Haiti. He forecast the zero tariffs on imports, for example, would increase the number of Dominican investors in Haiti.
Stephan Coles, co-owner of the Coles Group of companies and a leading businessman in Haiti, also favored the FTA between both countries. He made the point that Haiti is part of CARICOM and the Dominican Republic is part of CARIFORUM. “The Dominican Republic has bilateral agreements with most of the Caribbean countries, but it’s not part of CARICOM,” he explained. Furthermore he said that CARICOM countries import over US$42 billion a year. “It’s a huge market and they import from outside of CARICOM,” he said.
Coles added: “Companies in the Dominican Republic that go to invest in Haiti, assuming that this works and this is underway, will immediately have access to that market. And Dominican companies have the ability and the technical know-how to invest and to produce these goods.
“Secondly, Haiti has GSP, the Generalized System of Preferences, free access to the American market. I mean, the Dominican Republic does not have that now because the Dominican Republic is a developing nation. Haiti is a Least Developed Country. There are many ways to market Haiti as an investment destination; and not only for Dominican companies, but also for American companies as well. For any company in the world.”
Source: DR1, Elcaribe
Mar 28, 2019
The Municipality of Puerto Plata, the Dominican Municipal League and Dominicana Limpia reached an agreement for the technical closure of the current garbage dump and the construction of a sanitary landfill in Puerto Plata.
As reported, the initiative will be funded by RD$250 million from the central government and will be carried out in different phases over the next eight months. It is being described as an integral definitive solution.
Mayor Walter Musa said that the chosen site meets technical recommendations. He admitted that delays in reaching a solution to garbage treatment had resulted in that cruise ships avoiding docking at the Amber Cove cruise ship port in Puerto Plata.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Mar 28, 2019
