NewsWhore
01-03-2007, 05:10 PM
The weekend news was devoted mostly to reports about budget items and the political maneuvering surrounding the party conventions. Listin Diario reported that the Santo Domingo Metro would receive RD$7.18 billion in loans (EUR163.4 million) from France, Spain and Germany. According to the paper, the money will go to the Siemens-Thales Consortium for the different sub-systems needed to put the first line of the Metro into operation. The money deals were approved by the government's PLD senators only, since the PRD and PRSC senators walked out of the session after their request that the loans be studied in committee was rejected by the PLD majority. In a related story, Diario Libre says that the Metro will consume RD$12.28 billion in 2007. The paper says that the first rapid transit line will take up 55.5% of the Public Works Ministry's budget. Together with the seven billion pesos coming from overseas, the budget assigns another RD$5.16 billion in local resources. When first announced, the Metro was supposed to cost RD$3.0 billion.
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