President Luis Abinader has named industrial engineer and economist Magin Diaz to replace Jose Manuel (Jochi) Vicente who had been his Minister of Hacienda since 16 August 2020. Reportedly, Vicente resigned from the position to return to his private affairs.
Diaz is entrusted with overseeing the reorganization of the Ministry of Hacienda and Economy, a merger between the ministries of Hacienda and Economy and Planning. The merger was planned by former ministers Jochi Vicente (Hacienda) and Pavel Isa (Economy & Planning). On Tuesday, 15 July 2025, the Chamber of Deputies approved the merger.
Magin Diaz was the director of the Tax Agency during the second term of President Danilo Medina, from 2016 to 2020. He had not worked in government since then.
An industrial engineer from the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo (Intec), he also holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Instituto Global–University of Salamanca, as well as advanced graduate training in Macroeconomics and Financial Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He earned a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Over the course of his career, he has held key positions in the Dominican Republic’s public sector, including Deputy Minister of Finance (today Hacienda), Advisor to the Minister of Economy, Planning and Development, and to the Dominican State Electricity Corporation (CDEEE). He has also served as advisor to the Superintendent of Banks and to the Director General of Customs.
Within the Ministry of Finance, he coordinated fiscal and macroeconomic policy and played a central role in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He served as a counterpart to major multilateral institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), and was actively involved in all recent tax reform processes in the Dominican Republic.
Internationally, he has worked as a consultant for the IDB and the World Bank, providing policy advice on tax, fiscal, and macroeconomic matters to the governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Uruguay.
In academia, he has served as a university professor and director of the Economics Department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), focusing his teaching on Public Finance, Macroeconomics, and International Economics.
In August 2012, he was appointed Vice Minister of Fiscal Policy at the Ministry of Hacienda and, in October 2013, Vice Minister of Public Credit.
Among his most notable contributions in public office, he was directly responsible for the Petrocaribe debt operation, which reduced public debt by 3.3% of GDP. He also led the Dominican Republic’s first 30-year international bond issuance and its first 15-year domestic bond offering. Under his leadership, the government achieved a significant reduction in domestic borrowing costs.
Outgoing Minister Vicente shared with the general public his resignation letter posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account. The letter to the President stated: “I believe the time has come to embrace new challenges and return to my professional practice, which I paused in order to serve your government with utmost dedication.”
The letter, dated 10 July, emphasized Vicente’s belief that the Ministry of Finance needs “new blood” to consolidate recent achievements and carry forward its vision during the remainder of the administration.
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16 July 2025