President Abinader creates the Digital Transformation Cabinet
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, issued Decree 71-21, which creates the Cabinet for Digital Transformation, which will be responsible for developing national digital transformation strategies, assuming the functions and commitments of the Presidential Commission of the Republic Digital, whose decrees for the establishment and definition of legal bases are repealed.
The announcement was made during a ceremony in which Lisandro Macarrulla, Minister of the Presidency, highlighted that the creation of this cabinet responds to the government’s vision of making information and communication technologies a strategic tool for sustainable development. and inclusive for Dominican society.
He asserted that the 2030 Digital Agenda will be one of the ways that will allow the country to mitigate the effects of the pandemic in economic terms, since “it will raise national productivity and competitiveness levels, placing us in a better position in global markets. It will improve the quality of life of citizens because they will be able to receive more and better services from the State and they will develop new skills that will allow them to access better jobs”.
He declared that this decree is not only the change of name of a strategy but, on the contrary, “with the wide thematic spectrum that will be covered by this Cabinet, we will be promoting from a space of consensus, the profound reform necessary for institutional strengthening of key entities called to have a more prominent role and to eliminate duplications”.
On his side, the Deputy Minister of Digital Agenda, José David Montilla, stated that the formulation of the Digital Agenda is the basis that the country needs to deploy actions in a coherent and articulate manner, with which a true digital transformation is achieved.
He assured that the National Strategy for Digital Transformation will be built through consensus with actors from civil society, the private sector, and the academy.
“For such purposes, work tables or thematic committees have been established that are made up of cabinet members, representatives of public and private institutions involved, specialists and volunteers, who will develop each of the pillars of the Agenda”.
Members and functions of the Digital Transformation Cabinet
The Digital Transformation Cabinet will be administratively dependent on the Ministry of the Presidency, it will be chaired by President Abinader, and its members are Lisandro Macarrulla, Minister of the Presidency; Miguel Ceara Hatton, Minister of Economy, Planning, and Development (MEPYD); Roberto Fulcar, Minister of Education (MINERD); Franklin García Fermín, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT); Víctor Bisonó, Minister of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM); Darío Castillo, Minister of Public Administration (MAP); Antoliano Peralta, Legal Consultant of the Executive Power; Nelson Arroyo, president of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL) and Pedro Quezada, general director of the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OPTIC).
The functions of the Cabinet include the formulation of the Digital Agenda, including goals, indicators, plans, projects, and estimated budgets; recommend the positions to be adopted by the country in international forums regarding digital governance and the Information and Knowledge Society, and promote strategic alliance schemes between academia, the private sector and the public sector for the implementation of the Digital Agenda.
Macarrulla said that, among other topics, the cabinet work tables will address issues of “governance, regulatory framework, education, connectivity, digital government, digital economy, cybersecurity, technological innovation, and many others that affect technological development in the Dominican Republic”.