Elena Viyella de Paliza, president of the National Council of Business (CONEP), and Lisandro Macarrulla, president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic, announced they would hold the 2rd Business Convention to take place this coming 4-5 December. The gathering’s premise is to garner a concerted position for the business sector regarding the economy. “If we keep delaying decisions, the situation will only deteriorate,” Viyella said in an interview with the CDN news network. Macarrulla feels the main reason for the peso’s continued depreciation is lack of confidence, due in part to the fact that all measures taken by the government have been inefficient. He said the industrial sector has been asked to make sacrifices without producing any positive results. “Monetary policy is not an antidote to devaluation,” he said. Viyella concurred by saying there is a current confidence crisis. “There will be more confidence when the laws are upheld,” she said, mentioning that the government had failed to follow the Monetary & Financial Code in the case of the Baninter debacle. In her opinion, if the law had been applied correctly, the crisis would not have spread to other institutions, turning an solitary incident into one that has affected the entire population. Macarrulla also highlighted that government spending has continued to increase, saying that the Mejia administration’s expenditures have risen by 40% this year. While government spending for the first nine months of 2002 amounted to RD$4 billion, RD$6 billion has been spent so far this year, with a great portion of that going to pay interest on savings certificates issued by the government as its solution to the collapsed banks. “The Dominican society is paying for the damages caused by a single group,” criticized Macarulla. He said those hardest hit among the business sector are those catering to the local market. Viyella said the business sector must study the issues to propose any solutions that create conditions that increase local productivity, and thus the need for next December’s convention. She explained that for several months, CONEP has fostered meetings for business groups across the nation to voice their priorities and propose potential solutions to create more and better jobs and return to macroeconomic stability. “The population needs reassurance that their wages will have value,” said Viyella. She mentioned that when the 2003 budget was debated, the business sector had emphasized the need for austerity in government spending. This, however, did not happen. “Now more than ever is the moment for there to be quality in government spending,” she said. Macarrulla and Viyella concur that the resumption of the IMF agreement would bring confidence to the nation, given its psychological impact. The business sector spokespeople say that the conclusions should become the issues debated for the 2004 presidential election, which should veer away from focusing solely on the personalities of the candidates.