By helping a neighbor in need, the Dominican Republic also helps itself.

Just two days after Haiti’s earthquake, Leonel Fernandez, the president of the neighboring Dominican Republic, ordered a helicopter to fly him over the border for an unannounced visit. He was worried about his Haitian counterpart and friend, Rene Preval, who was still incommunicado.

What made this neighborly gesture remarkable was that the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola have long been divided by mutual suspicion. During a previous term in the 1990s, Fernandez became the first Dominican president to visit Haiti in 60 years.

Fernandez says he found Preval alone in a small, dark back office at a police station near the airport. They talked about how the Dominican Republic could help. It has, a lot. Crews of Dominicans, including engineers, telecoms technicians and the Red Cross, were among the first to join the relief effort.

Fernandez dispatched 15 mobile kitchens to provide hot meals to survivors. He is now sending 100 old buses, refitted with desks and chairs, to serve as temporary classrooms. Dominican health teams are helping to treat earthquake survivors at a makeshift hospital in Jimani on the border. Victor Atallah, a Dominican cardiologist, is building [...] Continue Reading…

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — More than 3,000 bright yellow taxis will soon be zipping around the Dominican Republic.

Officials have ordered that cabs be identified by the standard color to regulate the business and ensure passenger safety.

The government has bought a fleet of new yellow Toyota Corollas to be used as taxis in the capital of Santo Domingo and the northern city of Santiago. Several banks and a state institution issued a $129 million loan to buy the cars. They start circulating Wednesday.

Taxi drivers have the option of painting their current cab yellow or buying one of the new ones and receiving a tax break.

The government said Friday it also plans to certify drivers.

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Members Offered Access to Dominican Republic’s Most Beautiful, Private Beachfront Villa

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ — Ultimate Escapes, one of the world’s largest destination clubs, has finalized a reciprocity partnership agreement with Villa Castellamonte del Mare, an exclusive five-star ultra-luxury villa in the Dominican Republic. Through this strategic partnership, Ultimate Escapes members will have exclusive reciprocity access to this magnificent 15,000 sq. ft., fully-staffed villa located high atop a sea cliff in Cabrera, within the prestigious gated community of Orchid Bay Estates, on the Dominican Republic’s beautiful North Coast. Villa Castellamonte owners will also have reciprocal privileges to enjoy Ultimate Escapes’ fabulous residences in 45 resort destinations.

Villa Castellamonte del Mare, or “little castle on the hill by the sea,” has a unique beachfront location with sweeping 220-degree views of the Atlantic Ocean and access to every luxury service and amenity the North Coast of the Dominican Republic has to offer. Villa Castellamonte is the most recent partner to participate in the Ultimate Escapes Reciprocity Program, which permits affiliated developers and owners in participating five-star resorts to commit weeks of use of their luxury residence in return for similar access to Ultimate Escapes’ destinations.

“We are excited to add yet [...] Continue Reading…

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) announced on Wednesday that it has applied to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to operate new services from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Boston’s Logan International Airport to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Should JetBlue receive this authority, it plans to launch a non-stop daily service from New York JFK to Aeropuerto Internacional de Punta Cana on 6 May 2010 and a non-stop weekly service, operating on Saturdays, from Boston to Punta Cana on 8 May 2010.

Both services will be operated using 150-seat Airbus A320 aircraft.

Purfresh Teams with Agroasa to Supply Organic and Conventional Producers with Engineered Crop Protectant That Combats the Costly Effects of Solar Damage

FREMONT, Calif. — Purfresh, a provider of clean technologies that purify, protect, and preserve our food and water, today announced that Purshade®, a family of unique products scientifically engineered to protect fruits, vegetables, and other crops from harmful solar stress, is now available through Agroasa in the Dominican Republic. Depending on the commodity, the region, and the seasonal climate, growers may lose between 20–40 percent of their crop to solar damage. With the protection of Purshade, growers have experienced increases in biomass production and improvements in crop quality characteristics, including size, color, and weight, resulting in fewer culls, and higher-quality, [...] Continue Reading…

NASA is sending a radar-equipped jet to Haiti to make 3-D maps of the deformation caused by the magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 21 and multiple aftershocks that continue to occur.

The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, was already scheduled to head to South America aboard a modified Gulfstream III to study volcanoes, forests and Mayan ruins. NASA added the island of Hisapaniola to the itinerary to help study faults in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

“UAVSAR will allow us to image deformations of Earth’s surface and other changes associated with post-Haiti earthquake geologic processes, such as aftershocks, earthquakes that might be triggered by the main earthquake farther down the fault line, and the potential for landslides,” JPL’s Paul Lundgren, the principal investigator for the Hispaniola overflights, said in a press release Wednesday.

“Because of Hispaniola’s complex tectonic setting, there is an interest in determining if the earthquake in Haiti might trigger other earthquakes at some unknown point in the future,” Lundgren said, “either along adjacent sections of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault that was responsible for the main earthquake, or on other faults in northern Hispaniola, such as the Septentrional fault.”

uavsarThe UAVSAR, which left NASA’s Dryden Flight Research [...] Continue Reading…

 
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JUAN DOLIO, Dominican Republic — Group Metro, a leading real estate and transportation company in the Dominican Republic, recently received a $20 million construction loan from Banco de Reservas de La República Dominicana for Costa Blanca, an exclusive residential golf and beach community located in the Juan Dolio region. With construction well underway, this generous $20 million loan will be allocated to complete the Founder Residences and surrounding areas of Costa Blanca. www.costablanca.com.do

“The 52 exquisite Founder Residences are moving along at a rapid pace most recently reaching the rooflines,” stated Luis Jose Asilis, CEO of Group Metro. “The 18-hole Greg Norman Signature Golf Course is also progressing at a steady pace. The irrigation system has already been completed for the first nine [...] Continue Reading…