The president explained that one of the main goals of the initiative is to improve the country's economy, noting that last year the Dominican Republic received $4 billion in foreign investment, a historic record.
In Miami, President Luis Abinader highlighted that the implementation of the "Zero Bureaucracy" plan will reduce the time required to grant construction permits to developers and builders in general.
"As a professional developer, I know what it's like to get a building permit that used to take years and now can take as little as 9 months," Abinader said during a presentation in South Florida, at an event held Saturday at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus.
He praised the initiative, saying it is intended to "modernize the country and facilitate foreign investment," and that it will "save billions of dollars for the public coffers, help fight corruption, and generally improve the economy.".
The "Zero Bureaucracy" program, which aims to streamline bureaucratic procedures in state institutions and at the same time make public services more efficient, is expected to generate savings of approximately $1.2 billion by 2024.
"We need to change the culture so that people see that public officials are servants," said the Dominican president to a packed audience of compatriots in Miami, who also stressed that "Zero Bureaucracy" will contribute to reducing public corruption in the Caribbean territory.
"The goal is to modernize our country and for this program to facilitate all government services to improve investments," Abinader explained regarding a plan that in its first phase will digitally enable more than 305 procedures and transactional and interactive services from multiple public institutions.
The president explained that one of the main goals of the initiative is to improve the country's economy, noting that last year the Dominican Republic received $4 billion in foreign investment, a historic record.
"The Dominican Republic is a pro-business and pro-employment country," the president said, adding that this initiative represents "the only way to redistribute wealth and achieve social justice.".
The new services offered by "Zero Bureaucracy" are available to citizens, businesses, and the general population through the new single citizen service portal: www.gob.do, which seeks to transform and strengthen public institutions, as well as increase their efficiency.
The Dominican president said he knew from personal experience what the barriers imposed by bureaucracy are in his country, which he himself had to suffer during his time as a businessman in the construction sector.
The president was accompanied in Miami by Peter Prazmowski, executive director of the National Competitiveness Council, who said that in 2021 the cost of bureaucracy represented 4.7% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
"That year, the Dominican diaspora sent $2 billion to the country, but the bureaucracy ate up half of those revenues," Abinader emphasized, to underscore the importance of this plan that the Caribbean government is trying to promote in destinations with large Dominican populations.
The "Zero Bureaucracy" program is framed within Law 167-21 on Regulatory Improvement and Simplification of Procedures, the Dominican Republic's Digital Transformation Agenda 2030, and the National Competitiveness Strategy (ENC).
The "Zero Bureaucracy" program seeks to increase the efficiency of the Public Administration, through clear, timely and transparent regulatory frameworks that allow the simplification of procedures and services, as well as the improvement of the quality of regulations.
