The second part of the weekly agenda to take questions from our friends in the press from Santiago and also from other parts of the Cibao. Let 's begin, Jorgito. Good evening, Mr. President. On Domínguez, journalist for Listín Diario and Hoy Noticias. Mr. President, you have already come here to this city of Santiago on several occasions and have broken ground on very important projects. The city of Santiago, the residents of Santiago want to know what is happening, what progress is being made on the Yaque New York Chiquito Lodging project and the fire department works that are being carried out through the mayor's office, and we want to know about that. Other questions, Mr. President, I would like to know what the human and economic cost is of moving the government to the city of Santiago. Thank you so much. I believe Ulises Rodríguez is here, and I think he gave a press conference a few days ago. Uh, everything is in process. Well, what we really did was give the start or the announcement of the lodging project, but I think it's in process and he has the whole timeline and the critical path and the funds are there. Regarding the issue, we can give you a report on the costs next week , but our costs are minimal. This is the majority of the organizations, with the exception of this one, which we are carrying out at the presidential residence and the Governor's office. Edard and I think Santiago deserves it, that we put the "Don't you think so?" Good night. Edward Fernández, journalist for Diario Libre. Mr. President, once again at the Dominican-Haitian border in Dajabón, specifically the Haitians prohibited the entry of Dominican products into their country . What is your government's position on this measure taken in Haiti? That was today, there was a situation about that situation. We are talking with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense, and starting tomorrow we will have the official position of the government. Good evening, Mr. President, to everyone present. Estefanía Valerio, journalist for Telemedios, Canal 8 and Actualidad Noticiosa Mi Diario Digital. I would like to know what will happen with the work on Calle del Sol, given that Asesena has complained because it was planned or stipulated that each quadrant would be worked on in the equivalent of 3 months. However, it took approximately 9 months for the first one, and I would like to know about the complaints from Assesanza about changing the company that is working on this project. Thank you. Yes, that project was transferred from the Provincial Development Directorate to the Ministry of Public Works. That stage has already been completed, and work will be halted until it starts again in January to avoid problems during the December holidays. Now, that part that was built has turned out very nice, and what we want is to relaunch El Sol street because it has new competition, for example, with Agora and other shopping centers. So, you need to beautify Calle del Sol and the historic center of Santiago, which has been neglected for many years. If you walk along Benito Mon Street, I think there's a difference in terms of the street's aesthetics, and that's how we want El Sol Street to be , but we're going to do it in agreement with the merchants to have the least possible problem and disturbance in their businesses. Greetings, Mr. President José Adriano Rodríguez CDN. Tomorrow morning [clears throat] Santiago has grown quite a bit. We've seen the number of hotels, the monorail is coming, the cable car, the police headquarters is also a very important project because the police are literally in a shack, if you can call it that, in a city that is growing faster than many of the cities in the Dominican Republic. Yes, Santiago, many things were missing and we have been building all of those in relation to the Police Palace. That's out for tender and we hope that it can be awarded next month. There was a design that was, to be honest, a bit extensive. We adapted the design to make it more practical, with much more technology, and I repeat, it must be through MIBET and should be awarded in approximately one month. Good evening, Mr. President. Junior Marte, RNN and Telescibao HD. Two questions, Mr. President. The issue is that there is a collective complaint regarding high electricity bills, which you cannot comment on. People understand that their electricity bills have gone up, that you can't say, and regarding the issue of social security, what's the status of that? I once interviewed a congressman and he told me that it's dead. What can't you say in that regard? And Lañapita, president, the issue of street safety. Well , a very bloody weekend for the Dominican Republic. What can you tell us? I did n't understand about social security. Which one is good? In what way? Because, well, we recently interviewed a congressman and he told me that it 's dead. But I did it, but what is Latimu in what sense? in the sense that there is a proposal to promote a modification to the social security law. Well, he's talking about the social security reform. Yes. Yes. Good. The social security reform is being worked on through consensus in different sectors. It is a very delicate matter that requires consensus. And work is underway; the Ministry of Justice and Cisarril are also working to find that consensus to take it to Congress with a pre-established agreement with all sectors. Regarding the bill, the kilowatt hour term has not increased. He has said that several times, and there is a video and an explanation. What happens is that with the enormous heat, consumption has logically increased, and when you go beyond the subsidized levels, which are 200 kW and 400 kW, the rate increases. But that's explained; you can see it on the website of the Superintendency of Electricity, that situation is explained there. When you consume more, then the tariff prices increase. Regarding security, we have provided the security statistics. Uh, you have the statistics for Santiago, but for us even one death is too many and we 're monitoring it. There are two cases that have been reported this weekend. There is one case in which one of the perpetrators has already been captured, in the case of the young Mejía Ricard and in the other case of Bocachica, which are the two cases that were made public. I suggest that the gang that the police have identified as having carried out the shooting surrender because otherwise they will be caught, and it is best for them to surrender as soon as possible. Because, as in all cases, the police will find them. Good afternoon, Mr. President Franklin Silverio, this is Franklin Silverio from the news , telecontact. First and for the second time, thank you for what you have been doing for Santiago. This might seem repetitive, but it is. You have continued to do it. He has just issued a decree to come to Santiago and declare Santiago as the capital of the country for these three days. And precisely that investment that you are making in Santiago, there is an investment that I believe is one of the largest that you have made, which has been the cable car. And I have criticized my program on countless occasions and I have asked that this concern of mine be brought to you, and I am standing before you and that is why I am going to do it . It turns out that in 6 km of cable car, they built three stations in 1 km and the last one, the fourth station, after 4 km. That's why the cable car isn't working . Where people have to get on, there are no stations. I don't know what genius came up with the idea that there are no stations in places where people live . So, if you take public transport, you would have to walk 2 km to get to the station when the public transport passes by there. Precisely one of the places that most needs transportation. That was logical , but it wasn't tactical not to build the stations where they should be. And second, you stated that the bridge on Ty Avenue, from Ciruelito, was going to be built, leading to the central park. What would that entail? Because that would be a great relief for Santiago. Thank you so much. That bridge, to start with, that Eduardo Estrella bridge is here, it's in the bidding process to be awarded this year and perhaps start construction this year, as well as the road that will be widened and improved. Those are several of the other works that are also in progress on the subject of the cable car. Those were the technicians who didn't, but they were the technicians who made the designs, they made those designs. Now I want to give you this information. When the Alcarrizos cable car started operating, the number of users tripled, and the same thing will happen with the Alcarrizos cable car when it can be connected to the monorail, because that's the design. Gen Martinez, Telenoticias, thank you for coming to Santiago, Mr. President, and I have two questions for you. The first one arises from watching videos of what the Dominican Republic was like a few years ago. We see, or a political figure expressed at that time, that the problems of the Dominican Republic were three: electricity, water, and what was the migratory pressure. more than 30 years. I dare say that these problems still persist, and I would like to ask you regarding this issue: which of these problems do you consider your government has not managed to solve, at least not as you expected? And what decision are you willing to make before your term ends? And the second question is prompted by something that happened today, specifically in sections not only of Santiago, but I dare say also of other cities and provinces, in this case the southern ring road, where poor lighting combined with other factors has caused accidents. Today there was a tragic outcome with one person dying. If there has been thought about improving roadside assistance in terms of lighting, we shouldn't just focus on motorcyclists, taxis, and other transportation. Thank you. Um, I think there's a national lighting plan that the Ministry of Energy has, that's being done and will continue to be done. RD Vial is also working on that aspect; unfortunately, these are tragic accidents, and RDVAL is constantly addressing this. Now, problems are managed and mitigated. In the electricity sector, demand is constantly growing, and we have to continue as we are doing, for example, here nearby in Manzanillo, where we have around 1000 to 600 megawatts of thermal, solar, and wind power, and that is what we are doing with the water issue. The aqueduct was built to last 20 years, and it has been 20 years since a new aqueduct should have been built. We have been designing it and we must also begin to build it between CAF and Bit starting next year. These are situations; the Santiago of today is not the Santiago of 20 years ago because it is constantly growing. And you ask, what are the problems in the United States? What are the problems of Spain, of France? All the problems are recurring; what we need to do is solve and anticipate those problems and situations. Thank you so much. Good evening, Mr. President. If I am not a spokesperson for Mao's people, I will not be able to return to Mao. I was asked to make a suggestion. When you go to the city, don't take the route they have planned for you, but take a different route so that you can see the reality of the town, the streets, Berito Monsión Avenue, and the drainage situation that was addressed last week by Mr. Arnó. And the other question is, when will the draft amendment to the hydrocarbons law be submitted? From the hydrocarbons law. No, but the hydrocarbons law has been under review for 3 years and all sectors are involved, and they can't agree. They have been subjected to it for 3 years. Congress is in the hands of your party, Mr. President. No, it's not just in your hands. It's in hand. Those are the consensus in society. It's not about what one wants, and we always act by consensus. The hydrocarbon law is very delicate and has to do with all sectors. We submitted it 3 years ago and it has been under discussion. The question for engineer Eduardo is whether he addressed in today's agenda the issue of the union of Antonio Guzmán Avenue with Attui Avenue, which he presented last week, but in a very brief manner . It's the bridge we said is out for tender. Now let's see about the "Yes" thing. The bridge over the Gurado stream is out to tender, and supposedly, if everything goes well in the process , we'll be awarding the contract by the end of October. That is what connects Ty Avenue with the back of the central park, which should be built in about 12 months or so. About a year. Yes, one year. But it's good that we're talking about Mao. Why is Mao like this? Because of the work that's being done, right? Because of the work being done by the sanitary sewer system, when the city of Mao is one of the cities with the highest water table level along with Licei in the country. So, no government had done that work, and we are doing it because it is even a matter of public health. Of course, that has created situations regarding the execution itself, and by the end of the year that work must be finished, and all the streets; you can't miss the streets if you're still testing the pipes. And regarding the case of Benito Monsión, which is the Benito Monsión Avenue in Mao, right? The one here, you've passed by it many times. When was it fixed? When had they worked on it? No, but when had they worked on it? Because it's always been wrong. That road had once been paved. Well, there's a problem there because next door , as you know, is the Lindri canal, and there's a water issue there . We've been working on this for a while, but there has to be a definitive solution because they did it and it lasted two weeks and then it broke again. Uh, I mean, when it was built and it's always been happening since I've been in politics, it's been coming in bad condition. Everyone else knows that . For the first time, serious work is being done to definitively improve it, and it is being done between Lindri, INAPA, and especially public works. Do you have anything to say about that, Eduardo ? Yes, what we want is to correct it definitively because you are from Mao, you know it, there is a problem with the canal and the level of the groundwater and high water. So, we are working together with Indri, INAPA and ourselves to create a comprehensive plan, a solution that is now definitive, because traffic there is increasing every day . We've also been repairing the main street of Esperanza, which was another issue we had there. And we're also going to see, I'm going on Wednesday, as you know, and we're also going to supervise the trauma hospital that's also under construction. Good evening, Ronald Taveras for the new newspaper. Mr. President, are there any projects on the agenda related to the youth of Santiago? Well, there are many projects on the agenda in general terms, but I can tell you about some actions that will help young people, such as the construction of ITLA, which is currently out for tender, and the ITRE premises are very small here and have very few facilities. That will have an impact; we will have facilities for up to 2500 students. That's important. All those projects that are being done in Santiago obviously also impact young people. We have increased scholarships, even at the national level. Next Thursday we will announce the scholarships for meritorious students, which is being done with special attention this time. And in general terms, when all these works that we are doing in Santiago, if we are facilitating more free trade zones with greater competitiveness, that is also for more employment for young people. And when we are facilitating public works, that also has a positive impact, especially on the youth of Santiago. But a special project. We're going to have a real Litra store in Santiago. Hello good evening. Rosa Escalante from the ACD Media group. Excuse me for not standing up , but I don't want to be standing or I can't stand up. No problem. No problem. Ah, Mr. President, there is a warning from the Dominican Federation of Merchants about a possible 48-hour work stoppage because they continue to denounce unfair competition from the Chinese market. They say the Chinese are evading taxes and many local businesses have had to close because of it. Has the government met with them? What are the plans ? If there are plans to review the tax payment system and if it's possible that the government headquarters might be moved to other provinces in the future, for example, Asua. And where are you from? From Asua. Ah, [laughs] look, uh we're going to continue in conversations with the Merchants Association and with our friend Iván García. These are issues that we need to address, discuss, and above all, respect the law, Dominican law, so that everyone complies with it. The DGI has more than 40 audits of companies owned by Chinese nationals to determine these allegations, and everyone will have to comply with the law just as they do, or should comply with, all Dominicans or people of other nationalities. It is also possible for us to be able to carry out government actions in other provinces to follow up on specific issues. Santiago is the second largest city and obviously, in this case, it has the particularity of being first in terms of displacement. Now, this past weekend I was in Vanilla all day, I was in San Cristóbal yesterday too, practically in San Cristóbal and part of its municipalities all day. I've been to Asuo many times too, I mean, I live traveling. The thing is, in the case of Santiago, I think it was necessary to spend these three days so that he could even issue and sign decrees from Santiago to continue facilitating government action at the national level. Well, good evening, President María Tejada of the newspaper El Caribe and journalist and content creator. Uh, first of all, thank you for your visit here to Santiago. You can really feel that support. Uh, I want to ask you two things. First, there has been a lot of talk about the issue and the concern that parking has generated in the central part of Santiago, if they have plans to make some kind of public parking or something like that so that people have that convenience. And the second question, going a little more to the rural area, because I have already done several works on that, is that in Monción, in Loma del Tanque, they have a concern because they have been demanding a road that goes towards the part of the dam there for more than 25 years. So, they say that the works are not translated by EGIT in that area of ​​Monción. So if you have plans, excitement, we have done three three roads with the EG . Okay. But they say that and well, yes, obviously there will always be and in motion not through the ejeita, through INAPA we built the aqueduct that you know that I had been asking for years, demanding an aqueduct. And the road is also nearing completion, the El Rubio Monón road that will connect the entire mountain range. We're going to keep that road in mind too, but also the main road that goes from Mao to the Monsión crossroads has also been fixed, I mean, we've done several works there. We'll take it into account, but several roads have been taken into account there in that area, and Yita has invested there. Greetings. Good evening, Mr. President. Michael Vargas, from the Antony Marte communications group of Noticias 31. Thank you for coming here to Santiago. Mr. President, taking into account that the pick and shovel have little time left with respect to the IGA. You recently launched the Smart RD program and had some conversations with the sectors involved, the Messi, the Miner, to ensure that the program reaches all communities and sectors, including collaborators, students, and the general public . Well, the program is digital, it can be accessed from all over the country. It is an artificial intelligence literacy program. And everyone with internet access will have access to up to 1 million people. I think that coverage is rare in countries . In addition to that, together with Amazon Web Services, we are also awarding approximately 50,000 scholarships to young students for artificial intelligence courses. That's amazing coverage. Uh, I haven't even seen it yet, but 5 hours after launching Smart RD there were already 30,000 applications. I think that's going to continue, and obviously, because of the way digital technology is developed, it will reach even the most remote places in the country where there is digital coverage. Good evening, Mr. President. Welcome to your city, Santiago de los Caballeros. You are from our municipality Sabana, church, the ranches of Bagosico. We're from there. In addition. Welcome to your city. My first question. We are proud of our place there, Mr. President. First of all, let me tell you what's next for Santiago, besides this project and this 110 billion investment that you, as the government, have made here in the city. That's the first thing. What's next for Santiago, besides the work he's already done? And the second thing is, the second thing is the northern region headed by the capital of the northern region. Are we going to wait for a health city from our president, or is there an advanced project in that regard for Santiago, given the boom in health tourism throughout this region? Heard. Well, we in Santiago started early and kept going. These projects that are being put out to tender are projects that are coming to Santiago, but we are also doing projects throughout the region. Uh, we're also going to put out to tender that four-lane road, Eduardo, from where the ring road joins, which the Navarrete ring road will be ready by the end of the year, from where the ring road joins the road to the Esperanza crossroads, that will also be a four-lane road. Uh, we're doing a lot of paving throughout the region. In the case of Mao, as we have also discussed, we are going to finish a trauma hospital there that will also relieve pressure on the other hospital. If we go to La Vega, we are doing several projects, including the La Vega Arena, all the sports-related stuff. In La Vega, we are also going to build a maternity ward to relieve the pressure on the Morillo King Hospital. And in the case of Santiago's health, we were looking at some solutions. What Santiago basically needs is a new maternity ward. I believe that with a new maternity ward, the other hospitals will be decongested and the public health system, well, it can be stabilized. The health tourism sector, which is very important, is handled by the private sector as it should be, as is normal, and it has been growing. We have also facilitated the establishment of new hospitals within our administration, such as the EMA, which has been established and continues to grow, and we are working with them to further the growth of health tourism. It is also good to highlight in Santiago, in the mountains, the number of roads and highways that we have fixed, which, well, a week ago I was there constantly, we have improved in Baitoa and there is the second aqueduct, the second part of the Sabana Iglesia aqueduct and in Baitoa also the aqueduct and in Sahoma we are also working on the agreement. Greetings, Mr. President. I greet those who are here, but there were many historical needs for many years. Excuse me, Mr. President. Hey, Mr. President, welcome to Santiago. Thank you for taking these three days to develop truly important works. What strikes you about these three days of moving in with all the activities, with the whole office? You were saying that there might even be a decree here in that regard. There is one situation that I want to highlight from the beginning of your administration: the issue of citizen security. He has made every effort in relation to police reform. Just a week ago we saw a gruesome case that occurred in the southern part of Santiago, where two members, a soldier and a police officer, were assaulted. So, what is the real challenge? The challenge is to continue with the reform. We are not satisfied with the fact that the statistics have improved, as you know they have. For us, even one homicide, one robbery is one too many, and we will continue working on reforming and educating the national police. Today we have more people on the streets, you can see it. We will continue to improve as the months go by; the reform will continue to be implemented and improved. Now that there is a reform in the police, like nowhere else in the world, you can prevent a crime from being committed. But I repeat, we are not satisfied with the statistics being better. Just one, just one homicide, just one robbery is one too many for us, and we continue working to improve services as we have been doing. Okay, let's take the young lady's last question here. Finally, God, I've had my hand raised for a while. Mr. President, it's a pleasure. Lady López, a journalist here from Sí, [laughs] Lady López from Telemedios, although it's not relevant, but I can't leave without mentioning this: there's a recently submitted initiative that seeks to teach English, French, and Creole, especially mandatory Creole. I want to know what the government's assessment is of this recent initiative. First, that was from a member of parliament; it wasn't discussed by the party or the government. We are very interested in them teaching English, but we believe that teaching Creole is absurd. We don't understand where that idea came from, nor do we support it in the slightest . Well, thank you very much.