The Second Accountability Workshop of the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) Chapter for the Dominican Republic organized by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPYD), with support from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Compete Caribbean, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the European Union has concluded that the Dominican Republic is on track for concrete achievements in growth reforms, in line with the country’s 2030 National Development Strategy.
Representatives of the Dominican government, private sector, civil society and donor entities met on Friday, 24 October 2014 to discuss growth strategies and present specific advances in improving investment climate, ease of doing business, procurement systems and strengthening small and medium enterprises for the creation of more and better jobs.
The Dominican government reported concrete advances up to date in the Caribbean Growth Forum’s three main areas: Investment Climate, Logistics and Connectivity, and Skills and Productivity.
The achievements regarding the business climate reported during the Forum include the reduction in the time it takes to register a company from 45 to 7 days and the faster property title registration process. Other areas highlighted included the programs implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT) to provide non-reimbursable seed money to boost young entrepreneurs. MIC also launched a training pilot to strengthen business management practices and quality enhancement to more than 5,000 SMEs.
Regarding the public sector, the Citizen Observatory for Public Procurement recently launched more than 25 Oversight Committees that are monitoring public contracts in several ministries was highlighted. These committees seek to increase private sector confidence, promote SMEs participation in public contracting and promote greater transparency.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/10/23/dominican-republic-takes-steps-to-promote-inclusive-growth
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/dominicanrepublic