Foreign investment is seen as a good thing for the country. But leading Dominican economist Jaime Aristy Escuder, says that not all foreign investment is good. He concludes that the entrance of AES to the Dominican electricity market has been bad news for Dominican consumers. This is because contractual conditions grant it a strong monopoly position that is being reinforced with the changes being made to the original terms of privatization. Aristy points out the case of one consumer who has experienced consecutive arbitrary bill increases, and has no one to complain to and has but to swallow the frustration and pay the bill. He points out that a former member of the Commission for the Reform of Public Enterprises that privatized the electricity sector is now a leading officer at AES in the DR. He points out that the AES prominently advertised the construction of a natural gas plant, while the truth is that it will operate on expensive fuel oil for the first two years of operation. He points out that the government has allowed AES to build a new power plant, creating monopoly conditions, as this company is the power distributor in the East of the DR. Originally, the privatization terms established that generators and distributors would not be the same companies. Meanwhile, local consumers have no one to appeal to, and despite bravado that the new government authorities would revise the contracts, now that they are in government nothing more has been heard. Blackouts have been diminished, and former CDE administrator Radhamés Segura says the private companies came to an agreement with the new government. "AES Distribuidora has in place abusive and expropriator commercial policies because they do not allow consumers to adequately use their consumer rights," writes Aristy in the Listín Diario newspaper.
