DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 2009 INVESTMENT CLIMATE REPORT

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001973

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EINV EFIN ETRD OPIC USTR KTDB PGOV DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 2009 INVESTMENT CLIMATE REPORT

REF: STATE 123907


1. The 2009 Investment Climate Update for the Dominican
Republic.

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A.1 Openness to Foreign Investment
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2. While the Dominican government welcomes foreign
investment, significant systemic problems can make investing
in the country a risky undertaking. Foreign investors cite a
lack of clear, standardized rules by which to compete and a
lack of enforcement. Complaints have included corruption,
requests for bribes, delays in government payments, failure
of the Dominican government or of Dominican private sector
entities to honor contracts, disregard for Dominican court
rulings, and non-standard procedures in Customs for valuation
of imported goods. In 2008, the Dominican Republic dropped
from 99 to 102 among the 163 countries included in the
Corruption Perceptions Index of the international
non-governmental organization Transparency International. On
March 1, 2007, the free trade agreement between Central
American countries, the Dominican Republic and the United
States (CAFTA-DR) entered into force. Changes are expected
over time to allow better regulation and to provide further
opportunities for investment.


3. Under the Foreign Investment Law (No. 16-95),unlimited
foreign investment is permitted in all sectors, with the
exception of the disposal and storage of toxic, hazardous or
radioactive waste not produced in the country; activities
negatively impacting public health and the environment of the
country; and the production of materials and equipment
directly linked to national security unless authorized by the
President. There are no limits on foreign control of firms,
or screening of foreign investment in the open sectors. In
practice, improvements in assisting foreign investors wanting
to invest in the Dominican Republic have been made,
especially by the Center for Exports and Investment in the
Republica Dominicana (CEI-RD). A partial privatization of
state-owned enterprises (called &capitalization8) was
carried out in the late 1990,s; foreign investors purchased
shares and obtained management control of formerly
state-owned enterprises engaged in activities such as
electricity generation, airport management and milling
sugarcane.


4. In 2007, foreign direct investment flow into the
Dominican Republic totaled US $1.51 billion according to the
Dominican Central Bank.

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A.2. Conversion and Transfer Policies

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5. The Dominican exchange system is a market with free
convertibility of the peso. The economic agents perform
their transactions of foreign currencies under the conditions
freely negotiated by them.


6. The Central Bank uses the weighted average of the market
exchange rate to set the rate for its own operations.
Importers may obtain foreign currency directly from
commercial banks and exchange agents.


7. The Central Bank participates in this market in pursuit
of monetary policy objectives, buying or selling currencies
and performing any other operation in the market. Some
industries, particularly those operating in free trade zones
(zonas francas),complain that the Dominican authorities
carry out operations through the Central Bank and the
government-owned Banco de Reservas that result in an
overvalued peso, penalizing export sectors and the tourism
sector.


8. Resolutions 64-06 and 106-06, issued by the Dominican
Civil Aviation Board, require all airlines serving the
Dominican market to pay nearly all local taxes in U.S.
dollars as opposed to local currency for both entry and exit
of each passenger. Some airlines have considered challenging
this requirement in the courts, but the fines for failure to
comply are punitive and compel the airlines to comply until
the courts decide otherwise.

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A.3. Expropriation and Compensation
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9. More than a few U.S. investors have outstanding disputes
with the Dominican government concerning unpaid government
contracts or expropriated property and businesses. Property
claims make up the majority of expropriation cases. Most but
not all confiscations have been used for purposes of
infrastructure or commercial development. In some cases,
claims have remained unresolved for many years. Investors
and lenders have typically not received prompt or adequate
payment for their losses, and payment has been difficult to
obtain even in cases in which a Dominican court has ordered
compensation or the government has recognized a claim. In
one case, the Dominican Supreme Court in 1970 ordered the
government to compensate a U.S. family whose land and
businesses had been expropriated. The Dominican government
compensated owners only for the expropriated land but to date
has not offered compensation for the businesses. In other
cases, lengthy delays in compensation payments have been
blamed on errors committed by government contracted property
assessors, slow processes to correct land title errors, and
other technical procedures.


10. The past four Dominican administrations have
expropriated fewer properties than their predecessors and
have generally paid compensation in those cases. Discussions
of the U.S.-Dominican Trade and Investment Council meetings
in October 2002 prompted the Dominican government to
establish procedures under a 1999 law to issue bonds to
settle claims against the Dominican government dating from
before August 16, 1996, including claims for expropriated
property.


11. In 2005, with assistance from the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID),the Dominican government
identified and analyzed 248 expropriation cases; most (65.5
percent) were resolved by paying claimants with bonds or by
dismissing the claim. However, as noted in paragraph 9, a
number of U.S. claims against the Dominican Republic remain.

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A.4. Dispute Settlement
--------------


12. In preparation for the entry into force of CAFTA-DR, the
regional trade agreement with the United States, the
Dominican Congress passed legislation to comply with the
dispute settlement chapter of the agreement (see Chapter 20
of the CAFTA-DR agreement). While CAFTA-DR provides dispute
settlement mechanisms, the Dominican government has not yet
established domestic capacity in this area. The authorities
state that they are in the process of hiring and training
personnel to handle this aspect of the agreement. Currently,
quite a few U.S. investors, ranging from large firms to
private individuals, have disputes with the Dominican
government and parastatal firms involving payments,
expropriations, or contractual obligations. Both free trade
zone companies and non-free-trade-zone companies have
problems with dispute resolution. U.S. firms indicate that
corruption in Dominican businesses, government and judiciary
impede their access to justice so as to defend their
interests. The Embassy expects that the entry into force of
the CAFTA-DR agreement will be accompanied by an increase
over the short term in the number of disputes, as terms and
conditions change.


13. In April 2002, the Dominican Republic associated itself
with the International Center for the Settlement of
Investment Disputes ("ICSID", also known as the "Washington
Convention"). In August of the same year the country
implemented the New York Convention on Recognition and
Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York
Convention). The New York Convention provides courts a
mechanism with which to enforce international arbitral
awards.

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A.5 Performance Requirements and Incentives
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14. Foreign investors receive no special investment
incentives and no other types of favored treatment, except in
the area of renewable energy. There are no requirements for
investors to export a defined percentage of their production,
unless firms are operating under the regime of free zones
(zonas francas). Free zone firms are required to export at
least 80 percent of their production. Foreign companies are
unrestricted in their access to foreign exchange. Law 69
requires local sourcing when components are of approximately
equal cost and quality compared to imports, but this law has
not appeared to hinder investors. There are no requirements
that foreign equity be Qduced over time or that technology
be transferred according to defined terms. The government
imposes no conditions on foreign investors concerning
location, local ownership, local content, or export
requirements.


15. The Dominican labor code establishes that 80 percent of
the labor force of a foreign or national company, including
free trade zone companies, be composed of Dominican nationals
(although the management or administrative staff of a foreign
company is exempt from this regulation). The Foreign
Investment Law provides that contracts licensing patents or
trademarks, leases of machinery and equipment, and contracts
for provision of technical know-how must be registered with
the Directorate of Foreign Investment of the Central Bank.


16. The Renewable Energy Incentives Law (57-07) ),which
entered into vigor in June 2008, provides an array of
incentives to business developing renewable energy
technologies. This law was passed as part of the Dominican
government,s efforts to invigorate the local production of
renewable energy as well as renewable energy manufactured
products. The incentives include a 100 percent exemption
from taxation on imported inputs (equipment and materials)
and a 10-year exemption from all taxation on profits up to,
but not beyond, the year 2020.

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A.6. Right to Private Ownership and Establishment

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17. The Dominican Constitution guarantees the freedom to own
private property and to establish businesses. The Foreign
Investment Law provides foreign investors the same rights to
own property as are guaranteed by the Constitution to
Dominican investors. Public enterprises are not given
preference over private enterprises. An area of concern,
however, is the legitimacy of property titles. The Dominican
Republic has a history of problems resulting from conflicting
property titles. In an effort to combat this problem, the
authorities are working with the Inter-American Development
Bank to create an electronic database of all property titles
within the country. This project will authenticate and
reissue electronically generated property titles to owners.
It is not yet clear how conflicts between titles will be
resolved.

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A.7. Protection of Property Rights
--------------


18. The Dominican Republic has laws with sanctions adequate
to protect copyrights and has improved the regulatory
framework for patent and trademark protection, but United
States industry representatives continue to cite a lack of
enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) as a major
concern. The government committed in a side letter to
CAFTA-DR to take measures to halt television broadcast piracy
and agreed to report on its efforts in this regard in a
quarterly report to the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative (USTR). The Dominican authorities have
delivered these quarterly reports since January 2005. The
Embassy has noted improved coordination in this regard among
various government agencies including the Secretariat of
Industry and Commerce, the Attorney General,s Office, the
Patent Office and the Copyright Office. In 2005 the
authorities advised cable television operators of their legal
responsibilities regarding copyright and secured a formal
agreement with the operators' association in August 2005.
Since that time authorities have seized equipment from
various operators found to be infringing the laws. The
authorities temporarily closed down several broadcasters
found to be violating the law.


19. To fulfill CAFTA-DR requirements, the Dominican Congress
passed legislation in November 2006 to strengthen the IPR
protection regime by criminalizing end user piracy and
requiring authorities to seize, forfeit, and destroy
counterfeit and pirated goods as well as the equipment used
to produce them. CAFTA-DR mandates both statutory and actual
damages for copyright and trademark infringement, and
requires measures to help ensure that monetary damages can be
awarded even when it is difficult to assign a monetary value
to the infringement.

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Patents and Trademarks
--------------


20. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has expressed concern
that the sanitary authority of the Dominican Republic,s
Department of Health continues to approve the import, export,
manufacture, marketing, and/or sale of pharmaceutical
products that infringe patents duly registered in the
Dominican Republic. The Industrial Property Law, which was
revised in 2000, has only rarely been applied in legal
proceedings, so the effectiveness of the law has not been
thoroughly tested. In one case in which a Dominican
defendant was found guilty of patent infringement, the
Dominican Patent Office issued a subsequent opinion, based on
obsolete sections of Dominican law; and a Dominican judge
cited the newly issued but incorrect opinion to suspend the
patent. The decision was ultimately reversed by a court of
appeals, but the process took several months and added to the
uncertainty about the degree of protection offered to
industrial property in the Dominican Republic.


21. CAFTA-DR requires that test data submitted to the
Dominican government for the purpose of product approval be
protected against unfair commercial use for a period of 5
years for pharmaceuticals and 10 years for agricultural
chemicals. Legislation modifying the industrial property law
was passed in November 2006. Trademark infringement is now a
criminal offense. At the same time various other
dispositions of intellectual property laws were strengthened.
The Dominican Congress abolished criminal penalties for
patent infringement, a measure applauded by Dominican firms
engaged in pharmaceutical piracy or gray marketing. Patent
violations must be pursued entirely through civil actions.

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Copyrights
--------------


22. Piracy of copyrighted materials is common in the
Dominican Republic, despite a strong copyright law passed in
2000, the appointment of a specialized IPR prosecutor with
nationwide jurisdiction in 2003, and some improvement in
enforcement activity. Audio and video recordings, as well as
software, are frequently copied without authorization. The
authorities will occasionally seize and destroy such pirated
goods, but rarely prosecute offenders.


23. The copyright and telecommunications authorities
cooperated closely in 2005 in a campaign to oblige cable
television operators and broadcasters to obtain licenses for
re-broadcasting satellite signals and for broadcasting
cinematic films. Several firms were closed, fined or warned.
Concerning broadcast piracy cases, U.S. industry
representatives point to extended delays in the judicial
process when cases are submitted for prosecution.

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A.8. Transparency of Regulatory System
--------------


24. In recent years the Dominican government has carried out
a major reform effort aimed at improving the transparency and
effectiveness of laws affecting competition. Nonetheless,
efforts to establish the rule of law in many sectors of the
economy have been impeded or in some cases soundly defeated
by special interests. For example, in 2008, the Government
refused to enforce a court ruling to halt an illegal blockade
of a U.S. business by disgruntled ex-contractors. Many
investors, both Dominican and foreign, consider that
influence through political contacts will predominate over
formal systems of regulation.


25. On November 20, 2002, Congress passed the Financial and
Monetary Law (Law 183-02) to regulate banks and other key
players in the financial sector. The IMF standby agreement
negotiated in 2003 and 2004 required additional regulation
and improved supervision of the banking sector, and
authorities have required banks to improve capital ratios in
order to meet international standards. The Superintendent of
Securities does not regulate the issuance or trading of
commercial paper outside the formal securities exchange.
Issues traded on the exchange are regulated, although the
regulatory entity is weak, and these account for a very small
portion of total trades.


26. In November 2007, the Dominican Senate passed a law on
Innovation and Competitiveness that creates a framework for
manufacturing companies located outside of industrial free
zones to enjoy facilities previously only granted to
companies inside the free zone parks. The legislation
changed the former Industrial Promotion Corporation (CFI)
into the new Center for Industrial Development and
Competitiveness (Proindustria).

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A.9. Efficient Capital Markets and Portfolio Investment
-------------- --------------


27. During the 1990s, a period of strong GDP growth and
largely successful economic reform, Dominican authorities
failed to detect years of large-scale fraud and mismanagement
at the privately owned Banco Intercontinental (Baninter),the
country,s third largest bank. The failure of Baninter and
two other banks in 2003 cost the government in excess of US$
3 billion, severely destabilized the country,s finances and
shook business confidence. The failures and their
consequences brought about a crisis of devaluation, inflation
and economic hardship. Upon taking office in August 2004,
Leonel Fernndez,s administration formulated with the
International Monetary Fund a comprehensive program aimed at
addressing the weaknesses in macroeconomic policies and in a
wide range of structural areas. Business confidence
gradually returned, but effects of the 2003-2004 economic
crisis linger.


28. In early 2005, the IMF board approved a 28-month Standby
Agreement worth approximately US$660 million. Quantitative
targets were generally met with large margins, especially on
the monetary side. Dominican authorities had more difficulty
in making required structural changes. The Agreement ended
in January 2008.


29. The Dominican securities market, the Bolsa de Valores de
Santo Domingo, was founded in 1991. Since beginning
operations, the Bolsa has handled initial offerings of
commercial paper. The relatively inexperienced
Superintendency of Securities (SIV) contends with a very
aggressive private banking sector that maintains a
non-transparent, unregulated secondary market in securities.
This legal but unregulated trading of securities generally
escapes supervision. The Capital Market Law and its
regulations and the Monetary and Financial Law 183-02 are not
specific on how to regulate the market in commercial paper.


30. The private sector has access to a variety of credit
instruments. Foreign investors are able to obtain credit on
the local market but tend to prefer less expensive offshore
sources. There are 14 multi-service banks, 15 development
banks, 18 savings and loan associations, a mortgage bank, 69
finance companies, 23 loan houses, and a national housing
bank. The Central Bank regularly issues certificates of
deposit, using an auction process to determine interest rates
and maturities.

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A.10. Political Violence
--------------


31. There have been occasional spontaneous outbreaks of
protest in some of the poorer areas of the Dominican Republic
over spiraling electricity costs and lengthy rolling
blackouts. Occasional labor protests have been peaceful.

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A.11. Corruption
--------------


32. Corruption remains an endemic problem in civilian
government, in the private sector, and within the security
forces. Corruption and the need for reform efforts are
openly and widely discussed. A respected Dominican
non-governmental organization supported by USAID sponsored
research in 2004 that established the fact that during the
previous 20 years, only one sitting government official had
been convicted of corruption. That individual was released
after serving only six months of the sentence. The judiciary
has dealt administratively with judges deemed corrupt, but no
known prosecutions of corrupt judges have taken place.

33. The Dominican Congress ratified the UN Convention
against Corruption on October 26, 2006. The UN Convention
has a broader scope on corruption than do other agreements;
it includes provisions regarding money laundering,
obstruction of justice, private sector corruption, and asset
recovery.


34. In April 2005 the President established a National
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission empowered to receive
complaints about actions and decisions of government
officials. The Commission is little known and underutilized
by the general public.


35. The letter of agreement with the IMF stipulated that the
authorities would obtain the passage of legislation
criminalizing the theft of electricity. This legislation was
also a requirement of a World Bank lending program for
electricity sector reform. The legislation finally passed in
August 2007, but the deadline for implementation passed
without any enforcement. The law still has not been
implemented as of December 2008 indicating a lack of
political will to address reforms in the sector and reduce
the government,s massive subsidy (2008 est. over $1 billion)
to the electricity sector.

36. In June 2005 a group of former officials including a
former minister, transport union leaders and businessmen were
convicted of fraud in handling government subsidies for the
purchase of buses for public transport. The minister was
sentenced to three years of house arrest and a fine. The
verdict was confirmed on appeal and in July 2008 the Supreme
Court denied a petition to revise the verdict.


37. In July 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions
in the Baninter bank fraud case for violation of the banking
and monetary laws, as well as money-laundering. Two senior
bank officials and a noted Dominican-American bank advisor
were sentenced to ten years and hundreds of millions of
dollars of indemnification and fines were imposed. In
November 2008, the Supreme Court also upheld the convictions
of two senior Bancredito bank officials for similar offenses.
They were sentenced to eight years in prison.


38. Many Dominican elected and appointed officials do not
distinguish between the public interest and their own
financial and personal interests in the private sector.
Reports from the private sector reveal that some officials
work in both sectors simultaneously and have much influence
over the bidding process of certain contracts. The new
government procurement law is intended to end this common
practice, but it appears that time will be required to
standardize the new procedures.

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B. Bilateral Investment Agreements
--------------


39. On September Q 2005, the Dominican Congress ratified
the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and five
Central American countries (CAFTA-DR). Implementation
occurred on March 1, 2007. The Dominican Republic has
bilateral investment treaties with Chile, Ecuador, France,
Spain, and bilateral trade agreements with several Central
American countries (CARICOM),and a partial trade agreement
with Panam, but these do not provide the level of protection
to investors generally offered by U.S. bilateral investment
treaties. An agreement for the exchange of tax information
between the United States and Dominican Republic has been in
effect since 1989.


40. In 2007, the Dominican government started negotiating
bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico. The Dominican
government also signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with
the European Union as part of CARICOM in December 2007 that
entered into force in 2008.

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C. OPIC and Other Investment Insurance Programs
-------------- ---


41. The Overseas Private Qvestment Corporation has been
active in the Dominican Republic with both insurance and loan
programs. The Dominican government is a party to the
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Agreement.

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D. Labor
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42. The Dominican Constitution provides the right of workers
to strike and the right of private sector employers to lock
out workers. The Dominican Labor Code, which became law in
June 1992, is a comprehensive piece of legislation that
establishes policies and procedures for many aspects of
employer-employee relationships, ranging from hours of work
and overtime and vacation pay to severance pay, causes for
termination, and union registration. The Labor Code requires
that 80 percent of non-management workers of a company be
Dominican nationals.


43. The Labor Code establishes a standard work period of 8
hours per day and 44 hours per week and stipulates that all
workers are entitled to 36 hours of uninterrupted rest each
week. An ample labor supply is available, although there is
a scarcity of skilled workers and technical supervisors.
Some labor shortages exist in professions requiring lengthy
education or technical certification. Most employers have
found the local work force competent, trainable, and
cooperative. Foreign employers are not singled out when
labor complaints are made. Organized labor represented an
estimated 8 percent of the work force. The Labor Code
specifies that 20 or more workers in a company may form a
union. Before a union may officially call a strike, however,
it must have the support of an absolute majority of all
company workers, unionized or not; it must have previously
attempted to resolve the conflict through mediation; it must
have provided written notification to the Ministry of Labor
of the intent to strike; and it must have waited 10 days from
that notification before striking. In part due to these
stringent requirements, brief work stoppages are more common
than lengthy strikes.


44. Collective bargaining is legal and may take place in
firms in which a union has gained the support of an absolute
majority of the workers. Few companies have collective
bargaining pacts. The Labor Code stipulates that workers
cannot be dismissed because of trade union membership or
union activities; however, in practice, it appears that some
firms have fired workers associated with union activities.
The Dominican labor code establishes a system of labor courts
for dealing with disputes. While cases did make their way
through the labor courts, the process was often long and
cases remained pending for several years. Both workers and
companies reported that mediation facilitated by the
Secretariat of Labor was the most effective method for
resolving worker-company disputes.


45. Many of the major manufacturers in the Free Trade Zones
have voluntary codes of conduct that included worker rights
protection clauses generally aligned with the International
Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work. Workers are not always aware
of such codes or the principles they contain.

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E. Foreign-Trade Zones/Free Ports
--------------


46. The Dominican Republic's free trade zones (FTZs) are
regulated by Law 8-90, which provides for 100 percent
exemption from all taxes, duties, charges and fees affecting
production and export activities in the zones. These
incentives are for 25 years for zones located near the
Dominican-Haitian border, and 15 years for those located
throughout the rest of the country. These incentives were
extended through the year 2015 in agreement with the World
Trade Organization. This legislation is managed by the Free
Trade Zone National Council (CNZFE),a joint private
sector/government body with discretionary authority to extend
the time limits on these incentives. Companies in the FTZs
must export at least 80 percent of their products.


47. Foreign currency flows from the free trade zones are
handled via the free foreign exchange market. Foreign and
Dominican firms are afforded the same investment
opportunities both by law and in practice. The CNZFE,s
Annual Statistical Report for 2007 noted a Free Zone Sector
with a total of 53 free zone parks and 526 operating
companies. Of those companies, 240, or 45.6 percent are from
the United States. Other significant investment was made by
companies registered in South Korea, Sweden, Netherlands and
Switzerland. In general, firms operating in the free trade
zones experience fewer bureaucratic and legal problems than
do firms operating outside the zones. In 2007, free zone
exports totaled US$4.56 billion, compared to US$4.5 billion
in 2006.


48. The FTZ sector has experienced a loss of approximately
60,000 jobs nationwide from 2004 to 2007. The expiration of
the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, the progressive increase in
local production costs, including electricity, transportation
and even customs costs, and an overvalued currency are some
of the major factors affecting the free zone companies,
profitability. Exporters/investors seeking further
information from the CNZFE may contact:

Consejo Nacional de Zonas Francas
Leopoldo Navarro No. 61
Edif. San Rafael, piso no. 5
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Phone: (809) 686-8077
Fax: (809) 686-8079 and 688-0236
Web-site Address: www.cnzfe.gov.do


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F. Foreign Direct Investment Statistics
--------------


49. Foreign direct investment in the last few years has been
largely concentrated in tourism, free trade zone activity,
electricity generation, real estate development and
communications. The Dominican government has made a
concerted effort to attract new investment, taking advantage
of the new foreign investment law and of the country's
natural and human resources. The decision in the late
1990,s to privatize or "capitalize" ailing state enterprises
(electricity, airport management, and sugar) attracted
substantial foreign capital to these sectors.

Foreign Investment Data (in millions of U.S. dollars)
Source: preliminary data from Central Bank of the Dominican
Republic

2007 Numbers
- - - - - - - - - - -
FDI Stocks 12,899.9
FDI Stock /GDP 31.3 percent
FDI Net Flows 1,516.5

YEAR 2007 FDI flows by source country
(in millions of U.S. dollars)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
United States 796.1
Canada 163.3
Spain 258.3
United Kingdom 77.8
France 0.1
Holland 21.9
Grand Cayman -30.4
Chile 8.5
Switzerland 80.1
Italy 1.2
Others 347.1
- - - - - - - -
Total 1,698.0


FDI by Sector (in millions of U.S. dollars)
YEAR 2007
Preliminary data from Dominican Central Bank
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tourism 445.0
Trade 180.7
Communications 417.0
Electricity -19.0
Finance 53.0
Free Trade Zones 73.5
Minerals -170.4
Real Estate 723.3
Others 5.1
- - - - - - - - -
Total 1,698.0

Major Foreign Investors
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

50. Following are some of the largest companies registered as
foreign businesses by the Central Bank of the Dominican
Republic:

A.) American Movil (Mexican) (Compania Dominicana de
Telefonos (CODETEL)),formerly owned by Verizon (U.S.),is
the main telephone service provider.

B.) Central Romana Corporation (U.S.) is a diversified
operation that includes an international airport (La Romana),
a hotel, sugar plantations, a mill and real estate
businesses, among other activities.

C.) E. Leon Jimenes (ELJ),Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana,

C. por. A. (a former local partner of Phillip Morris, of the
United States). This company produces cigars and beer. In
November 2006, Phillip Morris sold its interest in ELJ,s
beer business and assumed 100 percent ownership of ELJ,s
cigarette business.

D.) Xstrata (Switzerland),(formerly Falconbridge
Dominicana) (Canada) produces ferro-nickel for export from
the Dominican Republic.

E.) Shell Company (Netherlands/England) is a distributor of
petroleum products. In November 2008, Shell completed the
sale of its 50 percent share in the refinery to the Dominican
Government.

F.) Citibank (U.S.) has operated in the Dominican Republic
for many ears. It maintains corporate operations, but in
006 sold off its retail banking operation in the Doinican
Republic to the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotabank).

G.) Esso Standard Oil (U.S.) is a longtime distributor of
petroleum products.

H.) hevron-Texaco Caribbean (U.S.) is another long-tim
distributor of petroleum products.

I.) Colgate Palmolive, Inc. (U.S.) is a leading manufacturer
in the Dominican Republic of soaps and toothpast.

J.) Bank of Nova Scotia (Canada) is one of te longest
established foreign commercial banks in the Dominican
Republic. It is known as Scotiabank. It expanded its retail
business significantly in 2003-2004 when it purchased assets
from the failed Banco Intercontinental (Baninter).

K.) AES (U.S.). Owns and operates electricity generation
plants.

L.) Ashmore Energy (U.K.),formerly Prisma Energy (U.S.),
operates a 180MW electricity generating plant in Puerto
Plata. The operation was formerly known as Smith-Enron.

M.) Coastal (U.S.). A major investor in electricity
generation.

N.) Seaboard (U.S.). A major investor in electricity
generation.

O.) Tricom, 40 percent owned by Motorola, (U.S.),is the
second largest provider of long distance and cellular
telephone services in the Dominican Republic. Citigroup of
New York owns a sizable share of Tricom's debt.

P.) Campana de Electricidad de San Pedro de Macors
(Formerly Cogentrix) (U.S./Dominican.) operates a 300MW
electricity generating plant.

Q.) Trilogy (U.S.),formerly Centennial, is a cell phone
operator and provider of long distance calling cards.

R.) CEMEX (Mexico) is the largest cement producer in the
Dominican Republic.

S.) Advent International (U.S.) operates six airports in the
Dominican Republic, including Santo Domingo,s Las Americas
International airport (second in passenger volume) through
its local subsidiary, Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI
(Aerodom).

T.) Major League Baseball (MLB). Many of the U.S. MLB teams
have multi-million dollar baseball facilities that recruit
and train players for the U.S. clubs.


FANNIN