Bengoa requests urgent approval of US$100million disaster recovery fund

The Minister of Finance asked Congress on Monday to meet  "with the urgency warranted by the current situation"  to agree the US$100 million disaster contingency loan which would be set up as a credit line. 

Vicente Bengoa said the proposal had been made on the 8th of March and had been under consideration by various commissions since then. He expressed his concern that hurricane Earl had now made clear the urgency of the situation and he revealed that the funds available in the budget for natural disaster recovery were only RD$491million.

He explained that drawing down the loan, once approved, would be contingent on Senate approval and the amounts borrowed would be determined by the scale of any disaster.

Bengoa spoke on the issue before leaving for Washington on Tuesday to meet with the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Murillo Portugal. He will be joined in the USA by the Central Bank governor, Hector Valdez Albizu and the Minister of Economy and Development, Themistocles Montas.

Members of these Ministries, as well as representatives of the electrical companies, have already been in Washington for several days preparing for these meetings.

3 related news articles

Another US$261 million in loans approved: Jul 8 2010

Cheaper home loans: Jun 26 2010

Government borrowing at record levels: Apr 26 2010

Share this article

Digg it!

del.icio.us

MySpace

Facebook

Fark

Reddit

Newsvine