The plan includes finishing 15,721 state sector houses, 11,786 basic housing units (25-square-meter homes) and 10,484 houses built by the population’s own efforts.

Minister of Construction Rene Mesa reported on the main challenges for this year, and said that about 14,700 homes will also be restored and 21,000 will be repaired, for which production of construction materials will be increased.

However, he explained that the planned figures for material production are below the demand, although some amounts were made available from the country’s scarce financial resources to import those materials and thus help stop the deterioration of the housing fund.

The plan also provides for 15 processing plants and grain dryers, the repair and expansion of healthcare facilities, the recovery of asphalt concrete industries, conductors, waste treatment and water treatment plants, and homes.

More than 3,000 hotel rooms, including new and remodeled ones, are planned for this year.

jg/llp/jf/crc