Dominican president promises reduced poverty in new term

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. (AA) – President Danilo Medina was sworn in Tuesday for a second term on the promises of reducing poverty, sparking a technological revolution and transforming the health, transport and other sectors.

He promised to lift 830,000 Dominicans out of poverty and another 350,000 from extreme poverty by creating 400,000 new jobs, extending social benefits and implementing housing improvement.

In his previous term, the 65-year old economist managed to remove 900,000 Dominicans from poverty rolls and created 432,000 new jobs in a country of 10 million residents where the unemployment rate hovers around 13 percent.

"With the work we intend to complete in the next four years, this generation of children will not know what is hunger ... will not remember blackouts or walking on dusty streets,” he said in his inaugural address.

In the presence of several visiting heads of state, including President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Ecuador President Rafael Correa, Medina promised to reduce by 30 percent each family’s spending on public transport and improve the sector.

Medina’s plan includes expanding internet broadband service and providing computers to 950,000 public school students and teachers in a push toward a more technological education.

Medina announced the expansion of the emergency assistance system that is currently available only in the capital of Santo Domingo and increasing health coverage to the majority of the population.

He said the economy of the Dominican Republic has grown 7 percent each year of the past three years and if that trend continues “we will grow an average of eight times higher than in Latin America”. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean projects economic contraction for the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Medina was reelected in May for a second four-year term with the 62 percent of the vote, consolidating the hold on power of the Dominican Liberation Party that has ruled since 2004.