Just one day after the President of the Dominican Agro-business Board (JAD), an agro-business association, called for dissolution of the National Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE), government officials announced plans to transform the body. A technical expert of the Presidential Commission for State Reform, Porfirio Quezada, explained to the press that his body is close to completing a draft law that would transform INESPRE into an "Agro-fisheries Commercialization Institute" overseeing the operation of five new, modern "mega-markets" (his term) for the buying, selling and trading of agricultural goods and foodstuffs. All five markets would be located in Santo Domingo. The Commission has prepared projections for the transformation’s financing and human resources needs, and will seek external financing to facilitate the transition. Quezada expressed puzzlement about the remarks of JAD President Osmar Ben?tez about dissolving INESPRE and the need for the PLD to fulfill its election pledge to replace INESPRE with a more transparent Commercialization Institute; he claimed that Ben?tez is fully appraised of the Commission’s work.Separately, INESPRE Executive Director Alejandro Jerez Espinal defended the record of his agency to reporters in Santiago. Jerez Espinal claimed that INESPRE has phased out the subsidies it receives from the government, that it operates efficiently and its procedures are clean and transparent.
