Dominican mayors urged to embrace Fourth Industrial Revolution

Punta Cana, DR.– Rafael Santos Badía, the Director General of the Technical and Vocational Training Institute (INFOTEP), delivered a lecture entitled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Its Implications for Public Management” to hundreds of elected mayors from different municipalities across the country. The mayors were attending the commemorative events of Municipalist Week, organized by the Dominican Municipal League.

Santos Badía proposed that mayors align their management with the advancements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and promote technical and vocational training for their constituents. He encouraged them to join the initiative to establish INFOTEP centers in each municipality as a way to stimulate the local economy.

“Through the use of new technologies, we can collect solid waste more efficiently, control traffic in cities, monitor people’s safety through smart cameras, control the frequency of services, manage taxes, and achieve successful management. All it takes is two processes: one is to digitally literate the population and the other is technical and vocational training,” he stated.

He pointed out that there is an underutilized figure in Law 176-07 that, if used, could bring about the transformations demanded by the municipalities.

“This figure is called ‘mancomunidad’ which promotes the concept of joining forces to do the same thing, and the figure of associationism, which is in the law – let’s pool our limited resources so that together we can solve the big problems – and this can be done by uniting several municipalities, which would bring solutions, for example, to the issue of landfills,” he explained.

Rafael Santos Badía, Director General of INFOTEP. (Photo: courtesy)

He emphasized that in this way, all personnel will be trained and qualified in the various areas required through joint training for the development of technical and vocational training.

“The social problem in the Dominican Republic will not be solved with more solidarity cards and more appointments in the municipalities. The way to develop our territory is to train people, attract investment, and develop companies that generate wealth. When a person earns a salary, they fix their house, buy clothes for their family, supermarkets come in, and progress arrives. This is the miracle of human resource development,” he explained.

Dominican Municipalist Week

On the occasion of Municipalities Day, the Dominican Municipal League (LMD) kicked off Dominican Municipalist Week, with the aim of highlighting the fundamental role of local governments in promoting development and advancing their institutional strengthening. The theme of the week will be “More Capacities for a Local Power at the Service of the People.”

Dominican Municipalist Week will be held from April 19 to 30, coinciding with the inauguration of the new elected municipal authorities (2024-2028), who will receive their certificate of participation in the National Training Program for Municipal Authorities, an initiative developed by the Dominican Municipal League with the support of institutions such as the Technical Institute for Vocational Training (Infotep) and the University of the Caribbean (Unicaribe).

The event, headed by Víctor D’Aza, president of the LMD, José Alejandro Aybar, chancellor of Unicaribe, and Rafael Santos Badía, director general of INFOTEP, was attended (virtually) by the Minister of the Presidency Joel Santos, Jesús Vázquez, Minister of Interior and Police, Darío Castillo, Minister of Public Administration, Kelvin Cruz, president of Fedomu.

Also in attendance were international guests Karen Labrador, director of the Colonia de Bogotá, Colombia, Zoila Milagro Navas, mayor of Antiguo Cuscatlán in El Salvador. Also present were Maira Morla, deputy general director of INFOTEP, Briunny Garabito, Dominican ambassador to China, and Altagracia Tavárez, director of the Municipal Administration program at UNICARIBE, among others.