New Chile president takes on rebuilding challenge
Posted: 11 March 2010 1728 hrs

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SANTIAGO : Tycoon Sebastian Pinera takes over the presidency of Chile on Thursday faced with the challenge of rebuilding a nation devastated by one of strongest ever recorded earthquakes and a tsunami.

Popular outgoing President Michelle Bachelet will hand over to Pinera at 12:00 pm (1500 GMT) at the seat of Congress in Valparaiso, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the capital Santiago.

His first task as president will be to visit inhabitants of the coastal town of Constitucion, one of the worst damaged after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake and the giant waves that followed, leaving almost 500 confirmed dead, at least 260 missing and some two million homeless.

Pinera's January victory spelled an end to the ruling left-wing coalition that has governed Chile since the end of General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship 20 years ago.

"We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction," Pinera said after the February 27 disaster, naming five new governors in each of the worst-hit central regions.

The 60-year-old not only faces the challenge of reconstruction -- which analysts estimate could cost up to 15 billion dollars -- but also takes over from a highly popular outgoing leader.

Bachelet scored an 84 percent popularity rating in a post-quake survey, even amid criticism of a slow government reaction to the disaster.

Bachelet on Wednesday issued a farewell statement to the country, boasting that her ruling Concertacion Party under her and three other presidents in the past 20 years turned Chile into "a country of high credibility."

Pinera, a self-proclaimed centrist, has promised that he will build on the policies practiced by his predecessor, rather than replace them.

- AFP/vm