The Central Government must pay more attention and implement efficient policies with a view to developing the municipalities of the country’s provinces, said the Japanese Yasushi Wada, who led representatives of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to survey priority needs in 17 of these demarcations, together with local institutions.
Wada assured that these have a lot of development potential, since each one of these areas has its own natural resources and socioeconomic activities, which can contribute to the national gross domestic product (GDP) if they are developed as they deserve.
“Without any fault and based on their reality, all the municipalities that we visited have possibilities of advancement and development. This is not something that can be seen in every country. In addition, there is a common factor here that individualism does not prevail, it is quite the opposite ”, he affirmed.
He added that if state policies coincided with the advantages offered by the municipalities, while social and infrastructure deficiencies were met, there would be a better living condition for people and a greater economic contribution from the municipalities, in general terms, for the country.
La Altagracia, Montecristi, Barahona, El Seibo and Dajabón are some of the provinces where priority needs were identified, which, in general, are around 3,315 for the Capacity Development Project for Efficient Planning and Public Investment (Prodecare).
From this effort, the country has a Unique Registry of Territorial Citizen Demands (RUDCT), a digital tool that, according to the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD), 81.2% of the demands of the municipalities are in three areas : infrastructures (43.6%), training (23.6%) and financing (14%).
The statements were offered during the press conference “Contribution of the JICA International Cooperation project to meet the demands of municipalities and provinces in support of participatory democracy by strengthening the relationship between the territory and the Government.”
