IMF to evaluate public investment management in the Dominican Republic

The meeting between Dominican government authorities and representatives of the IMF was held virtually, with the participation of Ministers Pavel Isa Contreras, Jochi Vicente, Miguel Ceara Hatton, as well as the general directors Martín Francos, of Public Investment, and José Rijo Presbot, of Budget.

The Dominican Government, through the Ministries of Economy, Planning and Development, Finance, and Environment and Natural Resources, held a meeting with a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to start the implementation of a Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) and a Public Investment Management Assessment on Climate Change (C-PIMA).

PIMA is a comprehensive framework for assessing infrastructure governance practices for countries at all levels of economic development. This assessment analyzes 15 dimensions involved in the three stages of the public investment cycle: planning, resource allocation, and project implementation.

While C-PIMA adds a climate dimension and assesses the capacity of countries to manage climate-related infrastructure, this assessment will identify areas for improvement in public investment processes for greater efficiency in the use of public resources.

The Minister of Economy, Pável Isa Contreras, discussed in detail the results of the indicators and tools used in these evaluations, which have been applied in 93 countries in the case of PIMA and 40 in the case of C-PIMA.

In addition, the Minister of Finance, José Manuel Vicente, said that the international organization could count on the full support of the Dominican Government to carry out this initiative to improve decision-making, control, and monitoring of public investment.

In turn, the Minister of the Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton, recalled the importance of government entities acting coordinated in the face of this type of technical assistance.

Virginia Alonso Albarrán, Senior Economist in the IMF’s Public Financial Management Division, explained that the efficiency gap in public investment management in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is 29% compared to the most efficient countries, a figure similar to that of emerging markets.

He argued that to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advance as planned towards the goals set in the Paris Agreement, the average annual capital cost for LAC would be 3.4% of regional gross domestic product (GDP) until 2030.

She noted that infrastructure investment needs are somewhat lower in LAC than in other regions to achieve the SDGs but are substantial.

The economist argued that, on average, better infrastructure governance could offset more than half of the observed efficiency losses and reiterated the need to strengthen infrastructure governance to reduce this gap.

The meeting, held virtually, was also attended by the Director General of Public Investment of the Ministry of Economy, Martín Francos, and the Director General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, José Rijo Presbot.