Dominican Republic’s low production the key hurdle to innovate

Santo Domingo.- Low production and absorption of knowledgeand weak regulatory and business environment are the main obstacles challenginginnovation in the Dominican Republic, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) representativeFlora Montealegre affirmed Tuesday.

In the conference "Looking into the future: innovationand technology in the process of economic and social development" as part ofa joint meeting of the Board of Trustees and the Academic Council of the SantoDomingo Technological Institute’s (INTEC), Montealegre cited the GlobalInnovation Index 2015 where Dominican Republic reaches a classification of 30.6out of 100, ranking 89 among 141 countries that face persisting major obstaclesin the field.

For the specialist, among the country’s main challenges figureeducation, institutionalism and investment, on which she proposes progress inimplementing institutional reforms, increase and improve the quality ofinvestment in physical and human capital, and manage technologies and more efficientorganizational models.

"The gap between developed countries and laggards canbe expanded if there’s no increase in investment in R & D, human capitaland technological infrastructure," Montealegre said.

INTEC and IDB collaborate in joint projects such as thelaunch of the Observatory of Logistics and Freight Forwarding of the DominicanRepublic, an initiative coordinated by the of Economy Ministry, and the vicepresidency’s first Diploma on the Health Services Management Network, whichtrained 230 hospital administrators.

INTEC and IDB also presented the study "Impact of thecrisis in the electricity sector in the Dominican economy" in October 2015,which analyzes the economic consequences of the shortcomings of the energyservice in homes and companies.

In the INTEC conference also participated Board of Regents presidentClaudia De los Santos; Vice President, Mary Fernandez and Secretary GeorgeManuel Blas, as well as Mercedes Lidia Hernandez, Frank Ranieri and JordiPortet, members.