Donald Reid Cabral, a former Minister of Foreign Relations, and a prominent Dominican businessman alerted that the PLD government is borrowing from local banks placing a major burden on the next government. [A previous PRSC government left major debts for the PLD government, but these were with individual contractors, not banks. The PRD government left major debts with international lending organizations.] Speaking at a press conference called at the headquarters of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, Reid Cabral said the PLD government has incurred in a practice never seen before. He said the excessive borrowing affects the economic stability and the private investment climate. Reid estimated that the government borrowed about RD$3,000 million from July to the present time to pay debts of the State Sugar Council, in order to privatize the state sugar companies, and to purchase Brazilian helicopters. He said this has to be added to indebtedness with private banks in the DR that already adds up to RD$4,881 million, according to the January-June Economic Report of the Central Bank. The RD$7,000 million total, he said, represents 14% of the total income expressed in the 2000 National Budget. Reid Cabral said that this practice will reduce the maneuvering capacity of the next government.
