Diario Libre reports that the government favors taking on another US$15 million commercial bank loan to complete the Merca Santo Domingo producers market being constructed on the km. 22 of the Duarte Highway. The loan is awaiting approval in Congress. Merca Santo Domingo was a major project promoted by former Agriculture Minister Eligio Jaquez during the previous government and is being financed by Spanish commercial bank loans. The project includes six structures, each measuring 72,000 square meters, for the sale of farm produce from all around the country. This could replace the Mercado de Villa Consuelo, currently the leading market for produce. The country has already taken on a US$50 million loan from Deutsche Bank in Spain for the construction. The plan is to organize the sale of farming products, and the market will also be a source of statistics on the volumes of produce transacted. Eusebio Alberto Guzman, deputy minister of Agriculture in charge of the project, explained in an interview with Diario Libre: “This is going to allow the consumer to see a better presented product, more hygiene and better prices because there will be fewer intermediaries,” he said. He said the project is 80% complete and plans are to inaugurate it in the second half of 2006.