The National Council of Business (CONEP) president, Elena Viyella de Paliza entire keynote speech at the Third National Business Convention appeared in the economic section of El Caribe on Saturday. Her discourse, a resume of the conclusions of the National Business Convention, clearly address what those convened felt were the greatest problems facing the Dominican Republic at this time. According to the speech, there exists a need to replace the collective pessimism pervading the country. To rectify this, Viyella called for a solution to macroeconomic instability. The CONEP leader also identified the energy problem as paramount. Having named the two main areas of worry, she then set out to propose the necessary remedies. These included a government that upholds the law, respect for the Constitution and a reorganization of the entire governmental process. The reduction of poverty was connected to the need to stabilize the peso, create wealth and maintain macroeconomic stability. Education, social security, the environment, the cost of money and the role of business investments in society would be the mainstays of the program to restore confidence. CONEP’s president also pointed out that the tax policy of the government often leads to less revenues for the government, rather than more, to be used to fight against poverty. The second major point that CONEP wished to emphasize was democracy and free trade, a subject that encompassed corruption and the political parties. At the end of her talk, the persistent head of the business community reminded her audience that “every day, as the sun comes up, 3 million Dominicans leave their homes to go to their jobs, and every day a nearly equal number of Dominicans, the so-called self-employed workers, also go to the streets to earn their livings by the dint of their own efforts. These are the majority of the Dominican people.” She concluded: “We will come out ahead of this crisis…”
Elena Viyella de Paliza, president of the CONEP business association, told her audience at the National Business Convention that it would be a good idea to hold a public auction and reprivatize the electricity distribution companies recently taken over by the government known as the “Edes”. Soila Paniagua from Hoy reports that Viyella proposed the companies be separated and operated independently.