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Guzmán Ariza Foundation Signs Agreement With Supreme Court

The Guzmán Ariza Foundation Pro Dominican Academy of Letters and the Dominican Academy of Letters entered into an inter-institutional agreement with the Judiciary Council in order to promote and develop cooperation programs aiming at improving the quality of language used in the judicial sector in the Dominican Republic.

The agreement was signed in the office of the president of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Judiciary Council, Mariano Germán Mejía. Fabio J. Guzmán Ariza, president of the Guzmán Ariza Foundation, Bruno Rosario Candelier, president of the Academy and Chief Justice Germán Mejía signed the agreement after a few introductory words.

The signatories spoke about the importance of creating awareness of the proper use of the language in the institutional and judiciary field. Mr. Fabio J. Guzmán Ariza, who is also president of the Editorial Council of the Gaceta Judicial, the leading legal journal in the country, and Director of the Publication Department, as well as president of the Guzmán Ariza law firm, added that in a democratic society documents emanating from the government should be written in a readily understandable and correct language in order for ordinary citizens to be in a position to comply with their obligations and to implement the rights they are entitled to.

This is the second agreement that the Academy has entered into with a public institution, as part of a joint strategy with the Guzmán Ariza Foundation aimed at improving greater transparency in legal language usage in the Dominican Republic.

An Eye-opening Talk on Tax & Other Legalities with Guzmán Ariza

In a conference hosted at the Casa de Campo Villa of Phyllis Berney, in the beautiful Barranca Este neighborhood, law firms Guzmán Ariza (based across the Dominican Republic, including La Romana), and Cantor & Webb P.A. (based in the United States) presented a conference on “Developments in U.S. and DR Tax, Estate Planning and Reporting Requirements”.

Details of the event from the Casa de CampoLiving: http://casadecampoliving.com/tax-guzman-ariza-cantor-webb/ magazine

November 2013

New Santo Domingo Office

The inaugural ceremonies took place on November 14 with the attendance of the President of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic and other judges and officials of the Dominican government and the diplomatic corps, as well as many clients and friends of the firm.

[November 2013]

Ministry Denies Loma Miranda Mining Permit

Guzmán Ariza Lawyers & Consultants announced the entry of Aura Celeste Fernández as a partner in his office in Santo Domingo, starting in January of this year.

The president of the firm, Fabio J. Guzmán Ariza, welcomed him and stressed that: “Guzmán Ariza is highly pleased to have the lawyer Aura Celeste Fernández Rodríguez, who has accumulated, in her more than three decades of professional practice, a vast experience and unmatched reputation not only as a lawyer, but as a university professor, civil servant and judge ”.

Fernández Rodríguez has held highly relevant positions in the judiciary and in the State administration. For more information about Aura Celeste Fernández, visit her profile in the Lawyers section of www.drlawyer.com.

Central Bank Cuts Benchmark Interest Rate Again

The Central Bank has announced it is lowering the benchmark interest rate from 5 to 4.25%. This is the fourth time the Central Bank has lowered the overnight rate. Governor Hector Valdez Albizu says policymakers do not foresee any inflationary pressures in the next few months. Annual inflation was 4.9%, within the Central Bank’s target range of 5% plus or minus one percentage point.

[June 2013]

Chamber of Deputies Approves Check Bill

In his weekly column in the Hoy newspaper on February 13, the constitutionalist Eduardo Jorge Prats, one of the editors of the constitutional reform project that is currently known in the National Congress, highlighted the efforts of our Director General, Lic. Fabio J Guzmán Ariza, in these terms:

“Fabio Guzmán has started a crusade in favor of the proper use of the Spanish language in legal texts. As part of this initiative, whose flagships are his delicious column “Our language” in the magazine “Gaceta Judicial” and the recently inaugurated Fundación Guzmán Ariza Pro Academia Dominicana de la Lengua, the lawyer has joined forces with the director of the Dominican Academy de la Lengua, Dr. Bruno Rosario Candelier, and together they have reviewed the text of the Constitutional Reform Bill presented by the Executive Power to the National Congress, as a result of which they have presented their linguistic recommendations and observations directly to the National Congress.

We understand that these observations perfect the proposed constitutional texts, thereby contributing to the precision, clarity, simplicity and disclosure of what will eventually become the new Constitution. It is our firm conviction that the members of the Review Assembly, when discussing each of the articles of the constitutional proposal, will take these observations into account, mainly because they do not alter the content of the proposal in any way and, above all, because, as stated by Bentham, quoted by Guzmán, the legislator must scrupulously watch the choice of words. “

Government Ordered to Pay US$50 Million for Cancelling Contract

Two South Florida companies have won a US$50 million judgment against the governmental National Institute of Hydraulic Resources of the Dominican Republic over a canceled contract to build an irrigation system.

A Miami Federal Court issued a judgment by default on June 10 after the DR agency failed to respond to the suit. The plaintiffs in the suit were Architectural Ingenieria Siglo (AIS) and Sun Land LLC.

[June 2013]

Dominican Republic Tops Textile Exports

Dominican Republic exports the highest amount of textiles and apparels to the US among the member nations of DR-CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic), according to ‘Major Shippers Report – U.S. General Imports’ published by the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) of the US Department of Commerce.

[June 2013]

2012 Ranking of Banks in the DR

According to financial consultant Alejandro Fernandez, the best performing banks in the Dominican in 2012 were:

Citibank.
Santa Cruz.
BHD.
Popular.
Ademi.
Adopem.
Banesco.
Cibao.
APAP.
Scotiabank.
BLH.
Promedio.
Leon.
BDI.
Caribe.
Progreso.
Reservas.
La Nacional.
Alaver.
Proamerica.
Duarte.

[May 2013]

Dominican Public Debt is Lowest in Caribbean

At a recent talk, Scotiabank vice president Pablo Breard highlighted the fact that the Dominican public debt is the lowest among Caribbean countries in the past decade. The Dominican global debt is around 30% of GDP, he stated. Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago have higher debt/GDP ratios. Breard forecast that the DR would benefit from the global economic recovery.

[May 2013]