El Seibo, Dominican Republic.- President Leonel Fernandez yesterday admitted delays in the application of the Objectives of the Millennium in El Seibo province (northeast), adopted in 2000 as a model for the United Nations development project.

The chief executive headed the fourth Popular Dialogue in the province, and after listening to its population’s demands, hailed the benefits of the plan, but said he recognized that "there’s been certain lethargy” in that plan’s execution, blaming it on "the difficulties we’ve had to face in different places in the country amid difficulties and economic limitations."

He said his government still has time to meet the goals of the Objectives of the Millennium.

El Seibo, taken as pilot plan to implement the program since 2004, is the second-poorest province after Elías Piña (west).

Change the misery

Fernandez said El Seibo’s development is centered on tourism, and called on the officials who accompanied him "to change this province’s image of misery," and for which among the dozens of its residents’ complaints and demands he prioritized street paving, highway repairs and the construction of a waste treatment plant.

Among the immediate works promised is the start of the repaving and repairs of the highway El Seibo-Miches, as well as the conclusion of the aqueduct La Jina, at a cost between 7 and 8 million pesos.