President sets up his projects

SANTO DOMINGO.-President Leonel Fernández spent more than two hours last evening with his Minister of the Hacienda, Vicente Bengoa and members of his construction advisors, and analyzed the infrastructure projects and the planning needed to carry them out. These are the projects that were announced in his third inaugural speech last Saturday, and include the second Metro line, elevated roadways and highways in Santo Domingo and other parts of the country.

Besides Bengoa, the Minister of Public Works, Víctor Díaz Rúa, the director of the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Projects, Félix Bautista and the director of the National Housing Institute (NNVI) were among the officials advising the President.

Coming out of the meeting, Bengoa explained to reporters that each one of the participants made a presentation on the projects that would be constructed by the government over the next four years, although he added that some of the projects would be offered as concessions by the government.

Bengoa said that he would meet next Monday at the Ministry of the Hacienda with officials concerned with the construction of government projects in order "to see how we will program the investments during the 2008-2012 period of government. The projects that the President announced are not going to be done in one or two years, and this has to be programmed."

He maintained that many of the projects announced by the President will be financed by the government, either through its own resources or from external financing.

Diario Libre