In front-page articles of the Listin Diario and Hoy newspapers, members of the business community expressed their worries about the upcoming introduction of the new social security system. The Dominican Association of Industries (AIRD) and the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santo Domingo are insisting that the provisional system, which was launched by Law 87-01 and is set to start on 1 February, be postponed due to ?serious holdups.?
Lisandro Macarulla, the president of AIRD, pointed out that to initiate the system ?will be impossible? and Jose Manuel Armenteros of the Chamber of Commerce and Production said that there is ?little probability that the system of pensions proposed by the law can enter into effect in February.? The business leaders indicated that there are several problem areas of significance, among which are: the lack of an information system to keep track of the affiliated members; the necessary plans to issue ID cards that have yet to be established; the absence of consensus on the regulations of Law 87-01; and the question of the RD$1 billion needed from the government to implement the plans and for which there is no budget. Workers? organizations, such as CGT (Central General de Trabajadores), CTU (Confederacion de Trabajadores Unitaria), and the CUP (Consejo de Unidad Popular), say that at this late date the system for collecting money for the social security program has not been installed because the government has not yet paid the Mexican company performing the work. The workers? organizations also pointed out that the public hospitals are not yet equipped to handle the workload that the new system will bring and the fact that in the 2003 Budget the government did not allocate funds for any government employees to be covered by the new system.
In the Dominican Republic six privately-owned authorized AFPs are already aggressively promoting the new pension plans. These are AFP Porvenir, BBVA Crecer, AFP Popular, AFP Carialico, AFP Siembra and AFP Reservas (the last one government-owned). Two other AFPs are expected to soon receive authorization: AFP Camino (Asociacion Popular de Ahorros) and one promoted by the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda, the government housing division.
