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NewsWhore
07-24-2009, 04:00 PM
Business representatives meeting yesterday have called for the government to take action to resolve the electricity problems. "We have spent over 10 years seeing how the CDEEE is being handled by contractors, when in reality it needs a manager. Contractors can be really good at building substations, lifting electric posts. The problem is about management, not contractors," said Celso Marrazini, former president of the National Business Council.
He also criticized the fact that the government only spends 2% of the GDP on education, and the high cost of ground and sea transport due to the monopolies that are obstacles to better prices for consumers and affect the DR's export capacity. "We have a deficient public transport system that is controlled by so-called unions with capacity of extortion," he said.
He also criticized the cumbersome government bureaucracy, as reported in El Caribe.
Ricardo Rosario, president of the Traders and Business Federation (Fenacerd) said that its more than 30,000 affiliates are impotent as they watch their power bills increase by more than 100% for delivering blackouts all day long.
"It is incredible that when the blackouts last up to 14 hours a day, businesses get a 100% increase in their electric bills. Businesses that paid RD$60,000 in April, are now being charged RD$160,000", said Rosario.

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