DR News
The United States Embassy has just released the new fee schedule for visa applications beginning 17 June 2023. Tourist visas will now cost US$185.00, and those visas that require a petition, such as work or resident visas, will now cost US$205.00. These visas (H, L, O, P, Q, and R) allow a person to work in the United States.
Finally, there is a third type of visa, the E visa, which is for commercial use or for investors. This visa will cost US$315.00.
None of these increased prices apply to those who have already paid or been interviewed, according to the press release from the US Embassy.
Source: US Embassy
May 31, 2023
Milton Morrison, the general manager of the EdeSur power distributor in the capital city, admitted to mafias inside and outside the power distributor in an interview for Diario Libre. He says these affect the quality of the service.
Edesur’s general manager told Diario Libre that he is fully aware that in that public company, there are mafias dedicated to hindering customers to receive bribes.
He addressed issues such as contractors stating that there are no cables in stock to carry out a repair, and then when the client offers to pay, the cable appears.
Milton Morrison says he is determined to confront the corruption schemes. He said the corruption scheme is present in the line men of the contractors, the contractors, and internal employees at Edesur’s offices.
Employees at the commercial office in Centro de los Heroes reportedly inform people who come to open a new contract or to request 220 volts that there are no power meters or cables. But the manager of Edesur told Diario Libre that Edesur has 12,000 power meters and enough meters of cables in stock.
“Those same people who tell you that there is no cable, and those same linemen, when a client bribes them and they give them 500 pesos, the cable appears at once, so, was there or was there not? There is a mechanism that we are pursuing of people who are doing harm,” he told Diario Libre. Diario Libre reported that bribes of RD$8,000 to get a job done, are not unusual.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
May 31, 2023
The Festival de las Flores is set for 8 to 11 June 2023 in the mountain vacation area, Jarabacoa in La Vega province. The event this year will coincide with Corpus Christi (7 June 2023) long weekend.
The president of the Festival de las Flores, Mercedes Perez (Mily), and director Alba Yris Rodriguez say the event is in its 12th year and is dedicated to the care and conservation of the environment.
The Festival de las Flores is a multi-cultural activity event. It is an opportunity to purchase plants and flowers, watch horse riders parade, and enjoy multiple educational and cultural activities, including a contest of umbrellas and hats made from flowers, horse decorations, and the floral arts. Jarabacoa is a major center for flower cultivation.
As in previous years, the event is centered at La Confluencia Park in Jarabacoa city.
Source: DR1, LisitnDiario
May 31, 2023
The Ministry of Environment announced it has authorized the construction of the Pedernales international airport. The airport calls for the construction of a two-level passenger terminal and a runway of 3,100 meters long and 45 meters wide.
The airport is key to the development of the new beach areas in the southwestern province. The closest airport in the area, the Barahona’s Maria Montez International Airport was never operational because it was built before there were hotels in the area, and a sufficient number of hotels were never built. The government is betting on building thousands of hotel rooms in the Punta Cana area in the next five years to make the new airport viable.
The Ministry of Environment said that Environmental License Number 0492-23 authorizes the operation of the air terminal project on the Oviedo-Pedernales highway, specifically in the Los Tres Charcos section of the municipality of Oviedo.
The document also establishes a surface land extension of 13,978,821 square meters for the work and a construction area of 413,500.00 square meters.
“This is a transcendental step to continue with the execution of this important work, which is also already in the final review stage of its executive project,” indicated Victor Pichardo, executive director of the Department of Airports.
He said the ground studies for the runway, taxiways, and aircraft parking aprons are nearing completion, including the pavement designs, giving way for the bidding process for the construction of these facilities to start soon.
The facility will also include restaurants, offices, a control tower, a heliport, a cargo terminal, a multi-service building, a power plant, a water treatment plant, an incinerator, a fueling area, a mixed military building, parking lots, perimeter fencing and others.
The Cabo Rojo International Airport is part of the Abinader administration’s ambitious Pedernales tourism project, which involves constructing a series of infrastructure works, within the public-private alliance strategy, to develop the tourism industry in the southwest.
Source: DR1, Notocoas SIN
May 31, 2023
Law 305-68 indicates that the 60 meters from the high tide are in the public domain and that any construction is prohibited. But in Cabarete, as it is known that permits are obtained by negotiating with the environment, the sale of land directly on the beach and consequently within 60 meters of high tide is promoted on the networks. Land cannot be sold within 60 meters of high tide because it is in the public domain. It is a total fraud because the sellers are selling land that belongs to the state. Real estate agencies (real estate) are complicit in this fraud because no one can ignore the law. The price can go up to USD 1,000 per square meter. Numerous are constructions in Cabarete within 60 meters of the high tide and this trend continues due to the lack of ethics of the provincial environmental department of Puerto Plata. Everything indicates that they are granting illegal permits within 60 meters of the high tide. Three cases have been found on the networks and surely more will be found.
Source: Cabarete Noticias
May 2, 2023
Anyone commuting on Dominican highways should delay no more in getting the Paso Rapido automated toll pass system. The prepaid tolls system enables commuters to use the lines that are exclusive to Paso Rapido affiliates. The authorities are reducing the booths where cash is paid for the toll to motivate commuters to purchase the Paso Rapido kit. The reduction in cash lines caused major lines mainly at the Las Americas toll booth over the weekend.
The Paso Rapido kit is sold at Paso Rapido stations and is also available nationwide at the Carol Pharmacy or Total gas stations.
The sticker should be immediately installed. It requires the entering of data online for recharge purposes. Recharging is then possible using a credit card. The kit is available for RD$250 which includes RD$200 in tolls.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
May 2, 2023
The Abinader administration is making available US$1 million to universities for research to mitigate the impact of sargassum on Dominican beaches, the Ministry of Tourism announced in a press release on 25 April 2023.
The announcement precedes the opening of the Dominican Annual Travel Exchange (DATE) in Punta Cana. The event is the leading travel booking event for the Dominican Republic.
President Abinader, who presides over the Tourism Cabinet, participated on Tuesday, 25 April 2023 in Santo Domingo in an international workshop “Challenges and Opportunities of Sargassum Management for Tourism in the Dominican Republic,” organized by the Ministry of Tourism in Santo Domingo.
President Abinader called on the authorities of the Caribbean countries to work in a unified manner to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, it is reported that the Ministry of Environment is creating a multi-sectoral roundtable to deal with the complexity of the sargassum problem and identify and organize actions.
The President said that for more than a year he has been working with the Ministry of Tourism to find a solution to the sargassum problems affecting the Greater Caribbean coastal area.
Source: DR1, Presidency
May 2, 2023
Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez once more appealed to the United Nations Security Council to take decisive actions in Haiti. So far, the only international actions have been sanctions by the governments of Canada and the United States on leading business people in Haiti that are said to be backing the gangs.
Speaking at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, 26 April 2023, Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez warned that the world is witnessing the dissolution of the Haitian state due to the serious insecurity and social problems affecting that country.
“We have said this in the past in this Security Council and we reiterate it today. The situation in Port-au-Prince is comparable to that of an internal armed conflict, saving the difference in this case on the qualification of belligerent. In fact, we are witnessing today, the dissolution of the Haitian state,” said the Dominican Foreign Minister as he finished his turn at the quarterly meeting of the UN body to deal with the situation in Haiti.
The minister added that any decision that evades urgent effective assistance for Haiti could be considered an abdication of its responsibility mandated by the charter of the UN Security Council and international law.
“We do not understand why it has taken so long for this vital body to do what is necessary to comply with the aid requested by Haiti (…). Being honest, we are inclined to think of the possibility that, as some say: countries receive attention according to a differentiating stratification,” said the Dominican foreign minister, observing that there are examples of other initiatives to support countries in crisis, for which international assistance has not met with such reticence.
Álvarez explained that the sovereignty of the state entails the obligation to protect its own people, but that when a state is unable to do so fully, this responsibility corresponds to the international community, for which diplomatic, humanitarian, and any other means within its competence must be employed.
Alvarez did recognize the work of the Sanctions Committee and its Panel of Experts, which have made efforts to identify the sectors within Haiti that promote criminal activities and contribute to insecurity, reiterating the urgent need to send an international force to support the Haitian National Police, as requested by the Haitian authorities themselves.
In this regard, he informed that the Dominican government has imposed entry bans on a number of Haitian citizens in order to safeguard the security and integrity of Dominican territory and as a way of supporting the efforts of the Security Council.
The position of President Luis Abinader is that the Dominican Republic needs to concentrate now on defending the security of the country. Abinader says that the Dominican Republic can do no more for Haiti. The Dominican Republic is impacted by the large number of undocumented Haitians that migrate to the country seeking work and basic social services, such as identification, health, and schooling, not available in Haiti.
Source: DR1, El Caribe
May 2, 2023
After 17 years, firearms will again be able to be legally imported into the Dominican Republic. President Luis Abinader enacted Decree 30-23 last Tuesday, 8 February 2023 with new dispositions in this direction.
Minister of the Interior and Police Jesus (Chu) Vasquez told reporters that the new imports will be strictly for the import of firearms to be used by security firms, just as specified in the decree. The decree calls for the Ministry of the Interior and Police to establish just what types of firearms will be allowed to be purchased abroad.
According to the reports in several newspapers, there are hundreds of firms that have licenses to sell firearms, but reports also indicate that close to twice that number deal in firearms but without formal permits.
On an encouraging note, Servio Tulio Castaños Guzman, the executive vice president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) said that he was confident that the government was capable of handling the new arms imports over the coming six months.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Feb 15, 2023
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce (Micm) announced the new “Made in Dominican Republic” stamp so that national and foreign consumers can identify products that are made in the country. The stamp applies to products made in the country, including those manufactured in export zones.
Industry and Commerce Minister Víctor (Ito) Bisonó and the president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), Julio Brache, said that 29 companies are the first to be authorized to use the stamp.
Julio Virgilio Brache, president of the AIRD, said the initiative increases the added value of the products. The stamp adds a valuable intangible value reflected in the prestige of Made in the Dominican Republic.
The stamp is a protected distinctive sign registered in accordance with Law 20-00 on Industrial Property of the Dominican Republic and is complemented by a manual of use and graphic identity for its application by interested industries.
The issuance of the License of Use of the Made in Dominican Republic Stamp is free of charge, is voluntary, and needs to be requested online.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Feb 15, 2023
