Economic Situation

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), through its economic projections contained in the biannual report «World Economic Outlook», reports that despite the crisis faced by Latin American countries, the economy of the Dominican Republic will grow over the next two years. In this regard, the IMF predicted that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow 0.5% Dominican Republic in 2009, and 2% in 2010, after a growth of 4.8% last year. Moreover, the IMF foresees an inflation of 1.7% in 2009 (10.6% in 2008), and 5.8% in 2010. According to the report, the IMF believes that the world economy, in general, will shrink by 1.5% this year and grow again in 2010. The IMF expects the region to recover in 2010 and grow by 1.6%.

Visa

The governments of the region known as CA-4, formed by Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador reported that, in order to promote business and tourism between them and the Dominican Republic, they have decided to eliminate the visa requirement for Dominican visitors. This provision, according to the Dominican government, is an act of reciprocity with the country that for years has allowed Central American nationals to enter without a visa to the Dominican Republic.

National Office of Intellectual Property

The Board of Directors of the National Office of Intellectual Property approved, by means of a special resolution, to provide the owners of tradenames that are in the process of complying with the provisions of the new General Law of Commercial Companies and Individual Enterprises of Limited Liability No. 479-08 . The service, which has been called «Corporate Exclusion», will be used for entities that wish to exclude from their registered name the abbreviations that define the type of society used, such as S.A. or C. por A., can do so by fulfilling a form and paying the amount of RD$ 1,500.00.

Renewable Energy

The President announced the start of construction work on a renewable energy generating plant, which will use Higuereta oil (plant-based oil) to generate power. The new company will be installed in the northwestern region of the country, generating about 25 thousand direct and indirect jobs and will be built by the Dominican company Rider Partners, with an investment of US$ 262 millions.

Monetary Board

The Fifth Resolution of the Monetary Board dated April 2, 2009, adopted the Regulations concerning Operational Risks, with the objective of providing the rules to be applied by financial institutions to identify, measure, evaluate, monitor and control operational risk that they may be exposed to, and to minimize the losses they may incur with this type of risk. The Regulations concerning Operational Risks approved by the Monetary Board establishes regulations regarding the administration of Operational Risks, Operational Risk Supervision and Control, Notice Requirements, Reporting requirements and Capital Requirements.