The National District City Council has approved the Regulations for Places and Functions established in Ordinance 9-2012 that will control and allow for the control and supervision of the informal businesses that have set up operations in public areas in the capital.
The legislation, passed by the Council of Members on 18 October, will require traders in public areas to have licenses that should be accompanied by an evaluation and rating by the Ministry of Public Health through the Department of Traffic and Urban Mobility, pay the cost of the license, establish the working hours and if gas or any source of heat is employed, they have to be certified by the Fire Department and accept the regulations for the use of such apparatus according to the ordinance that was passed.
The disposition makes the municipal authority responsible for establishing the restricted areas where these informal traders will not be allowed to operate, and to establish the areas that can be occupied by this type of commercial activity, as well as the goods and services that can be sold in the area. A long list of what can and cannot be done in this informal sector accompanies the reports in the newspapers.