Chile's Reconstruction
Financing Plans Arouse Discussion
By Alejandra del Palacio
SANTIAGO - Chilean President Sebastian
Piñera on Sunday proposed full or partial
privatization of state companies to finance
post-quake reconstruction efforts.
The initiative could add to the measures
already decided by the government. They are
budgetary austerity; tapping the savings
abroad accumulated in the country's Economic
and Social Stabilization Fund (ESSF); and
soliciting credits to the international
market.
Earlier, Piñera estimated that the cost of
reconstruction would amount to 30 billion
U.S. dollars, which accounts for about 17
percent of Chile's gross domestic product.
The current government decided to reassign
some resources from the
40-billion-U.S.-dollar national budget,
which had been approved during the
administration of former President Michelle
Bachelet. That means some 730 millions
dollars to help bear the cost of
reconstruction.
However, considering the right-wing tendency
of the current government, the opposition
and the communist sectors have warned of a
possibility that the reconstruction would
become a big business.
Many economists agreed that it would be
worthwhile to get external finance only in
the case that the damages are bigger than
what is estimated. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
