Santo Domingo.- President Leonel Fernandez yesterday defended his government’s policy on the economy, because after having received it "under intensive care," at the end of 2004 it’s already recovered, reason why Dominicans are now better off than four years ago, because they eat more and better.

Although acknowledging low expenditure on education, health and social policies, he attributed it to the obligations of the foreign debt, and the subsidies to the electrical sector and liquefied petroleum gas.

In his speech to the Nation in Congress, the chief executive announced investments of US$3.1 billion in the sugar and mining industries, which he said would create more than 30,000 jobs, the start of the Monte Grande dam, the resumption of works to use the Camú river and the completion of other infrastructure works.

Fernandez said the electrical sector and public safety are the country’s great challenges, and pledged that by no later than 2012 the blackouts will be definitively eradicated and the entire national territory protected.

For their part, the business sector said the speech was positive and honest, while the opposition parties called repeated promises and demagoguery.