President Leonel Fernández watched as the Comisión de la Reforma de la Empresa Pública, the government organization in charge of privatization, formally began pre-qualifying the companies that will participate in the tender to choose companies that will be investing in the privatization of the Corporación Dominicana de Electricidad (CDE), the state electricity utility, as per Law 141-97 on privatization. While the electricity bill that provides the legal framework for the entry of new companies in the electricity sector has not yet been passed by Congress, the Fernández administration is going ahead as if the bill had been passed. A similar situation occurred with the Monetary and Financial Code, which has been applied even if it has yet to be passed by Congress. Congress is unlikely to pass the bills until at least after August of this year, as at the present time congressmen are giving priority to political campaigning in view of the upcoming 16 May municipal and congressional elections. The pre-qualifying will end in April when the companies chosen will participate in a tender. Companies participating in the pre-qualifying round are: Electricité de la France, Enron Caribe, Chilgener, Amoco Power, Iberdrola, Union Fenosa, Saur International, Coastal Technology, Caribe Power Dev, Endesa International , Constellation Holdings, Consorcio Ies-Luz Fuerza, and BB Energy Ventures. These companies would invest in CDE power plants in the Itabo and Haina parks and in electricity distribution companies that would be created to service the North, South and East of the country. In addition to the CDE, Fernández government privatization efforts encompass the Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Estatales (CORDE), that groups several government enterprises; the Consejo Estatal del Azúcar (CEA) that groups government sugar mills’ and the Corporación de Fomento Hotelero that groups government hotels and other tourism industry properties.
