President Leonel Fernández and a team of high-level officials yesterday called in a group of executives from newspapers and television stations for a three-hour meeting in the National Palace intended to improve understanding of, and bolster support for, government plans to "capitalize" the Dominican Electricity Company (CDE). President Fernández rejected the use of the term "privatization" for the operation that begins on December 17th. He argued that "capitalization" is more appropriate because his government "never will give away state patrimony." The current 100% state-owned CDE will simply be split and converted into several distinct limited liability companies (or Sociedades Anónimas or SA’s as they are known in Spanish). CDE-Hydro, in charge of the nation’s hydroelectric plants, will be entirely state-owned. The other parts of the current CDE – in both generation and distribution – will be given to three mixed-capital (public and private) SA’s organized along regional lines. Fernández revealed that, contrary to some press reports, the approximately 2,500 employees that will stay with CDE-Hydro will not be receiving dismissal benefits because they will continue working with the firm, with all the legal rights and benefits they had accumulated during their service with CDE still intact. The head of the Commission for Reform of Public Enterprise (CREP), Antonio Isa Conde, explained that 700 current CDE workers will be retired before the capitalization, so only 3,800 CDE employees will actually be affected by the process. Labor Minister Rafael Alburquerque explained how workers "dismissed" would be assured their dismissal benefits, and how most would be rehired by the new production and distribution firms. Isa Conde explained that the capitalization of CDE was necessary because the government could no longer afford to subsidize the company. He noted that the Fernández Government has provided RD$4.8 billion in subsidies in two years. CDE Administrator Radhamés Segura argued that the capitalization was essential if the country’s electricity production needs are ever to be met. The current government has installed six units at a cost of US$110 million, yet CDE estimates that another 200 megawatts capacity needs to be installed in order to stop the blackouts, at an estimated cost of US$80 million.