Bureaucracy stalls projects

[NewsWhore]

The World Bank's "Doing Business 2011" report says that stalled permit process in the municipal offices of Santo Domingo as well as the Ministry of Public Works offices involve delays of nearly five months on most construction projects. The process of getting the plans approved and the building permits are just two of the 17 steps needed before a single brick can be laid. According to Listin Diario, builders, planners and architects have been asking for the creation of a "single window" where all the permits can be dealt with. Promises have been made, but so far nothing has been done. Generally speaking, in the whole area, the DR is not the worst or even average, since the processing time in most of the Caribbean is around 219 days, five more than the full average for the Dominican Republic. In order to get their projects under way, many builders and promoters actually begin work without having secured approval for all the paperwork, and so they have to do without water, electricity or telephones, which usually take three months to be installed anyway. According to Diego de Moya, the president of the Dominican Chamber of Builders (Cadocon), there are basically just two issues: "Obtaining approval of the plans and the property titles".

See: www.doingbusiness.org/reports/doing-business/doing-business-2011 (http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/doing-business/doing-business-2011)

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