Back in October of 2021, the Social and Economic Council (CES) set out the general outlines for the working groups that would be discussing items of major importance to the future of the Dominican Republic. These were to be roundtable working groups composed of representatives of social sectors.
The CES itself is headed by former INTEC university rector Rafael Toribio. It had been chaired since its inception by Monsignor Agripino Nuñez Collado who passed the gavel to Toribio when he retired. It has been successful over the years at reducing tensions among labor sectors and management and between business and government.
In August 2021, President Luis Abinader had established a proposal for a “Dialogue for Reforms” that would air out some major issues. And so the current working groups were formed, eleven so far, of an estimated 16.
Each roundtable is composed of representatives from the government sector involved, the political parties and representatives of the three sectors of the Council; labor, society, and management.
The current groups are: elections, the environment and climate change, the modernization of the public administration, foreign policy and migration, health, citizen safety and police reform, social security, the digital transformation, government transparency and institutionalism, transportation, and water.
Each of these groups is working and will present their report to the institution that is related to their area. For example, the Central Electoral Board (JCE) will receive the report from the elections roundtable, and the Ministry of the Environment will receive the findings of that working group.
Since some of these committees or working groups have been in session for several months, their reports will begin to flow shortly into their respective agencies. Next Friday (18 March) for example, the Environment group is expected to report. The group working on modernizing the public administration will hand in their report on this Wednesday.
And there are still five groups that have yet to begin talks: labor, electricity, quality of education, taxes and hydrocarbons, Diario Libre reports.
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Diario Libre
14 March 2022