Businesses should put competition aside

[NewsWhore]

Former head of the National Business Association (CONEP) Elena Viyella de Paliza has presented reporters with the idea that all the country's economic sectors should get together and thrash out the solutions to the main problems affecting the DR. Speaking to reporters from Hoy newspaper yesterday, Viyella said that the country is facing very big challenges and issues that merit everyone's participation in order to find the solutions needed. She mentioned issues such as how to make the most of the international trade agreements the country has signed, questions of competitiveness and, of course, the electricity problem. She also expressed her opinion that the Dominican economy has to take the fiscal measures that may be necessary at this time and it has to deal with the so-called hidden costs. Regarding the electricity sector, a field in which she is involved, Viyella said that the nation has to solve this problem, which she described as a recurring one. Viyella commented that this vicious circle needed to be broken. She said that blackouts were linked to the generators' inability to import the fuel needed on time, due to the lack of on-time payments that the electricity distributors have to make. Viyella recommended a pact between all the sectors linked to the economy to solve these and other problems. Commenting on the so-called "hidden costs" she mentioned the fact that the electricity generators have to produce the electricity they consume on an individual basis, and this represents a hidden cost for them, affecting their competitiveness. In her opinion the country has not taken advantage of the free trade treaties due to internal competition.

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