OCTOBER 2008

Boats owners will propose their services during the cruising season

Bahía Cruise Services takes along its passengers to Cayo Levantado

SAMANA.- The Association of the Owners of Boats of Samaná announced that during the next cruise liners season, their units will operate normally in spite of the claims of the Bahía Cruise Services company that only their own boats have the right to moor around the small Cayo Levantado island.

The president of the organization, Nadín Peguero Bezi, described as harmful the request of the cruising company, which determines unilaterally the dates when the association can or cannot work in Cayo Levantado.

Since this company started to operate in Samaná, our association makes efforts to preserve the dialogue but anybody is considering our requests.

According to the explanations of Pequero Bezi, the contract subscribed between the Dominican state and the mentioned company, grants the right of exclusiveness for anchoring in adjacent island territorial water, as well as for the boarding and the transfer of the passengers.

In the agreement, the Dominican state represented by the Secretariat of Tourism, commits to not authorize excursions in the Cayo when the cruise liners contracted by Bahía Cruise Services are anchored in water close to the small island.

The tourist contractor said that, regarding this situation, the organization is confronted to problems with its regular customers, to whom they must send communications to inform them that they cannot visit the zone in cruising season.

We cannot see the wonder of these cruise liners and to close the doors to the tour operators which during more than 30 years were our principal economic support, he expressed.

He also said that at the beginning, the cruise liners company had established prices agreements with the association, on the basis of the principle that the two parts will work together, but he indicated that the latter were violated by the mentioned company.

The Association of Boats Owners communicated to the Tourism Secretariat its position regarding the conflict and they are waiting for an answer of Francisco Javier García.

Peguero Bezi sent to the ministry a revision of the No.696-04 contract subscribed with the cruise liners company of which the purpose is to monopolize all the services offered since years by the various sectors of the Cayo Levantado.

Hoy Digital, by Erica Guzman, 01.10.09

US $100M to revamp Samana’s port Arroyo Barril

The port’s remodeling is based on a 30-year concession contract

SAMANÁ.- A 100 million dollar investment by the company Valley Forge Corporation is expected to revert the almost total inactivity of Samaná’s Arroyo Barril port (northeast), a remodeling project that includes a 500 slip marina and dockage for several cruise ships simultaneously.

Around 1,000 boats would visit Arroyo Barril with nearly 3 million tourists every year, said the executive Rodrigo Montealegre Saturday.

The project, expected to conclude in five years, includes a passenger terminal, offices, a hotel of approximately 100 rooms, an ecological museum and yatch club, according to Carolina Llobregat, an architect of the company.

This proposal’s fundamental concept is a sustainable environmental offering, that includes taking advantage of the place’s environment, creating spaces of ecological zones.

The port’s remodeling is based on a 30-year concession contract signed with the Dominican State.

Dominican Today, 06.10.08

The First Lady gives a medal of recognition to Odebrecht

The Brazilian company collaborates in several development programs in DR

The Office of the First Lady gave recognition to the Brazilian company Odebrecht for the economic and social contributions which it offers to the province of Samaná where it builds a modern aqueduct which will raise the quality of life of the inhabitants of the area.

The distinction was given during a ceremony which took place at the NationalPalace in the presence of President Fernández, Vice President Rafael Alburquerque and the First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández.

In the ceremony during which other companies and personalities of the country were rewarded, the Office of the First Lady announced that the Odebrecht Company was committed in the social development of Samaná and of other localities where it builds important infrastructures.

It underlined the collaboration of this company in the social programs carried out by the Office in this Northeastern province, which benefit more than five thousand families. During the ceremony, it was emphasized that the two institutions make the promotion of craft industry co-operatives, of workshops of clothes industry, of technical training, of health family departments and health program for the employees of Odebrecht.

The recognition medal was given to Marco Cruz, general manager of Odebrecht by the First Lady.

The Brazilian company is also building the Pinalito dam in Constanza.

Diario Libre, 08.10.08

New boards will be put on the highway

To inform the travelers on tourist attractions

Informative boards will be put along the highway Monte Plata - Samaná to direct the motorists towards the curiosities of the area.

The Office of Senatorial Management of Monte Plata - Provincia Esmerlada and Segundo Pueblo del Milenio, represented by Senator Charlie Mariotti and the executive president of the North-East Highways, Engineer Armín García, manufacturer and dealer, signed an agreement by which the company will finance the setting up of 50 boards along the highway which is crossing the province, to direct and inform the travelers towards the natural, cultural and social curiosities and attractions of the zone.

García declared that the construction of the Santo Domingo - Monte Plata - Samaná, highway will also contribute to the development of the Esmeralda province since it will allow going to the Capital in only 20 minutes.

According to the convention, the boards will be at the disposal of the different clusters or groups composed by the producers and the companies coming from the province.

With this agreement, a step ahead is made in the provincial development, within the framework of the efforts of strategic management for the development of Monte Plata.

The day of the signature, Emerson Eusebio, mayor of Bayaguana; Marcos Torres, mayor of Sabana Grande de Boya; Miguel Polanco, president of the Economic Development Agency of Monte Plata, representatives of the Community, company managers of the ecotourist sector and Community chiefs were present.

El Libelo, 13.10.08

Samaná port’s concession contract

It raised from US $10M to US $100M

Hipólito Mejía’s Administration raised from 10 to 100 million dollars the concession contract for Samaná’s Arroyo Barril (Duarte) port, signed with the company Valley Forge Corporation for the project’s construction, newspaper Diario Libre reports.

The addendum 023/2008 modified the contract that dates from 2001 and has a 30-year period, was signed about three months between the Dominican Port Authority (Apordom), in name of the Dominican State and executives of the company.

It stipulates that the signature is also for the construction of the Pirate port, the extension and new construction of Arroyo Barril’s current footer, a passenger terminal, offices, preparation of the area, and the construction of a second pier next to the present one.

According to Apordom legal consultant Carlos Marmolejos, the variation was done at the investors’ request, who changed their tender of 100 million dollars, 90 million more than the commitment assumed in 2001.

Dominican Today, 15.10.08

Rise of cruise tourism in Samaná

The area received more than 170 thousand passengers

SAMANÁ. - With the arrival of 97 cruise liners and more than 170 thousand passengers during the 2007-2008 cruise season, from October 2007 to August 2008, the Province of Samaná lived its most successful period, by exceeding by 90% the figures obtained the previous years.

Federico Andrés Schad, managing director of Bahía Cruise Services, communicated this information and explained that the majority of the passengers of the cruise ships visiting the country came from American, coming from Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and other ports like Baltimore and New York .

Schad detailed that among the cruise liners companies which anchored to Samaná, there are MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Azamara Cruises, Princess Cruises, P & O Cruises, Oceanía Cruises and Regent Seven Seas.

The executive underlined that the position of Samaná as one of the cruise destination reached the fastest growth of the country, which he allotted to a massive interest for this zone on behalf of the tourists, basically for the natural beauty and the tourist potential that has the area.

He also underlined the geographical location of the province, since in the Northern area, hundreds of cruise liners are navigating to other islands of the Caribbean.

Diario Libre, 17.10.08

A study to decrease the disastrous floods of Bajo Yuna is ongoing

To improve the quality of life of people living in the river banks

The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI), and the CRECER Foundation of the United States are developing a plan which will be used to decrease the floods in Bajo Yuna.

Engineer Héctor Rodriguez Pimentel, executive director of INDRHI said that with this action, one sought to save lives, to avoid damage to the agriculture and to reduce the vulnerability of the Bajo Yuna.

The plan consists in studying and evaluating the depth of the basin of the Yuna river which frequently overflows and produced floods when a tropical storm or a hurricane is over the country, by causing death and material damage.

The holder of INDRHI was accompanied by Doctor Phillip Bendient, director of the organization and of a committee of the Rice University, which will work to the project. Rodriguez Pimentel said that the action answers the concern of President Leonel Fernández to apply measures which tend to improve the living conditions of the residents of Bajo Yuna and the close zones.

The CRECER organization is composed by representatives of 10 universities of the United States, those who demonstrated a great interest for this project.

The civil servant explained that the representatives of the organization will work in a accelerated way in the realization of the study on the vulnerability of the places affected by the Dominican rivers rising, in particular the Yuna river.

Among the representatives of the Rice University, there are Larry Dunbar, Hilary Robinson and Jude Benavides, who are pleased to offer their co-operation to the residents of Bajo Yuna and to all the Dominican Republic.

Amy Neunswander, of the Texas University in Austin and David Baltenspenger of the A & M Texas University , form also part of the committee.

Atanay, 23.10.08

Antirabid campaign Samaná 2008

On November 1 and 2, in the green sector of the Malecón of Samaná

The Tourist Cluster of Samaná, independently of the interest for the wellbeing of the puppies which are strolling about the streets, seeks with this action to make become aware of the importance of the healthiness and the safety of Samaná as tourist destination.

With this campaign, the canine population which circulates in the streets will receive the necessary cares so that as well the tourists as the inhabitants can walk in the streets of Samaná without the animals are representing a rage or other infection danger for the visitors.

During this initiative, the dogs will be counted, evaluated, vaccinated and operated in order to not reproduce any more and finally, they will receive a collar which will identify the animals which were already assisted.

The donations are welcomed as well as the volunteers.

The cash donations can be made by check out to the Association of the Animals Friends of Sosua, Inc, organization which supports the logistics of this prevention and care campaign.

Katia Ríos and Patricia Reinoso, 27.10.08