The List?n Diario reports that President Hip?lito Mej?a announced yesterday a twelve-year RD$57-billion program to fight poverty. National Planning Office director, Fernando Mangual said that the program is conditioned to the country maintaining a growth rate of 4.5%. Economists are forecasting this year the DR will grow 0.5%, at most.
The program to fight poverty amount corresponds to the RD$55-billion Baninter financial scam unearthed in May by the Governor of the Central Bank.
Accompanied this time by Enrique Iglesias, the head of the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), and Vice President Milagros Ort?z Bosch, Mej?a declared the start of what he called ?The Strategy and Plan of Action for the Reduction of Poverty in the Dominican Republic?.
The program would receive the technical support and financial assistance of the IADB and conforms to commitments made by the DR at the United Nations Summit on Poverty. According to the head of the National Planning Office, Fernando Mangual, the project would be directed at six areas which need the most attention: education, health, housing, social security, potable water and jobs. Mangual said that the first areas to be prioritized would be education and health. The planning official also said that 54% of the proposals are already included in the 2003 budget and that the other 44% would be tabled in the budget for next year. After providing generalities of the program, Mangual explained that the resources to carry out the project would require an annual growth in the gross domestic product of 4.5% for the next 15 years.
The Listin Diario was the only newspaper to carry the story today. The newspaper was recently intervened by the Central Bank.
Furthermore, the announcement comes at a time when other local newspapers are reporting that the government is three months behind in its payments of monthly subsidies to public hospitals in the DR. Hoy newspaper points out that the government is not issuing the Ministry of Public Health its complete budget. The newspaper says that of the RD$235-million quarterly budget, the Ministry of Public Health has only received RD$126 million, which has caused the suspension of allotments for the expenditures of 150 public hospitals.