The second Economic Development Summit took place at the Puerto Rico Convention Center Tuesday, when members of Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla’s economic team summarized what agencies have been up to since January to further the administration’s agenda to spur private-sector jobs and activity.
Puerto Rico Food distributor Pedro Barba e Hijos Inc., Humacao drugstore owner Manuel Mediavilla Inc., and developer Joseph McCloskey-Diaz — who was involved in a highly-publicized mortgage fraud scheme in 2009 — were among the most recent commercial bankruptcy filings, with upward of $20 million in combined debt.
The Puerto Rico Justice Department’s Office of Monopolistic Affairs announced Tuesday it has filed a complaint against Supermercados Econo Inc. for violations to fair competition rules after failing to notify about recent changes in its grocery store chain’s composition.
The Puerto Rico State Department has a backlog of about 20,000 trademark and corporation registration applications pending review, which it is looking to eliminate this year, Secretary of State David Bernier said Tuesday.
Thousands of last-minute taxpayers are expected to file their returns in Puerto Rico today, and the Treasury Department is responding by offering extended hours at 21 collections centers, and its headquarters in Puerta de Tierra, agency Secretary Melba Acosta said Monday.
Three high-ranking Puerto Rico government officials, Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Alberto Bacó and Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company Executive Director Antonio Medina, jetted off to Brazil Sunday to participate in “The Government Leaders Forum — Latin America and The Caribbean,” hosted by Microsoft.
Amid outcry from many public workers who will see their pension benefits dwindle once they retire from their government jobs, Puerto Rican lawmakers approved and Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla signed a sweeping reform aimed at “rescuing” Commonwealth’s Employees Retirement System.
The Puerto Rican government’s economic team is in Washington D.C. this week to “disclose and advance plans to stabilize the government's finances and revive the island’s economy,” the Treasury Department said Monday.
The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority recently announced it has entered into an agreement with Minneapolis-based Honeywell to upgrade wastewater treatment plants for the agency that entails modernizing infrastructure, improving efficiency and creating jobs.
The Puerto Rico Labor Department is going after companies and government agencies that have failed, for whatever reason, to make their unemployment insurance payments for the past five or six years and now owe a combined $378 million, agency Secretary-designate Vance Thomas confirmed.
High-ranking government officials said Thursday that the decision by Standard & Poor’s a day earlier to slash Puerto Rico’s credit rating to near-junk status was “not a surprise” given the persisting grim economic scenario, but in its analysis the agency is giving the current administration “room to tackle the general fund deficit.”
The Government Development Bank will be hosting a “Puerto Rico Investor Day” event in New York next week, to give backers a one-on-one opportunity to meet with senior members of the island’s fiscal team.
The Puerto Rico Treasury Department is embarking on a pursuit of taxpayers who defrauded the government’s coffers either by under-reporting on their income taxes or failing to file altogether, agency Secretary Melba Acosta said Thursday.
Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla detailed Thursday the progress of his administration’s strategies to revive the island’s economy, saying among other things that the private sector has already pledged to create 15,896 of the 50,000 he vowed to lock down in the first 18 months of his tenure.
High-ranking Puerto Rico government officials unveiled Wednesday a package of measures aimed at resolving the Commonwealth Retirement System’s critical fiscal situation, including raising the retirement age and increasing employee contributions.
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