Very good morning, dear professors, Mr. President of the Board of Regents, Madam Vice President of the Board of Regents, members and past members of the Board of Regents, vice-chancellors, deans, coordinators, students:

In this place, which reminds us of the engineer Rafael Marion-Landais, who was the main engineer in the design of the sober, resilient buildings that characterized the first INTEC and in which it was decided that in this long and narrow campus, like Chile, In the center of the campus was our library as a symbol of what a library should be, the center of accumulated knowledge and resources for the entire community, it is my turn, more than rhetoric, to present the new institutional strategy of INTEC.

Following the advice of Seneca, two millennia ago, who said that there is no favorable wind for those who do not know where they are going, INTEC presents its new Institutional Strategy as part of a tradition of formulating its strategic plans, one of the best but the best among Dominican universities. Thus, every five years an institutional strategy is provided, which in this case we formally present to the entire community, because it is known since it has been prepared, prepared and formulated precisely by the entire community.

This Institutional Strategy 2023-2027 required special care for many of us because we knew that it was the fiftieth anniversary strategy and that we were going to launch it in the first year of the next fifty years of INTEC. And I wanted this to be repeated, that this is the first year of the next fifty years of INTEC because on March 9 of last year, in a very emotional celebration, in which we commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Constitutive Act of INTEC , on March 9, which preceded the start of teaching on October 9, in the presence of an exquisite representation of the founders, when we had Ramón Flores, Miguel Ángel Heredia, Bernardo Defilló, José Joaquín Puello, and Manuel Cocco and with Rafael Toribio, there were two admonitions that I understand have been a mandate that since the founders of INTEC has been given to us on how to navigate our next fifty years. On that occasion, Manuel Cocco Guerrero, founder of INTEC, proclaimed, quote: “We celebrate 50 years of INTEC, but we are going for the other 50. That is to say: INTEC is not looking at the past, INTEC is an ongoing project.” And, a few minutes later, Dr. José Joaquín Puello indicated, emphasizing Manuel Cocco's proclamation of looking immediately to the future, the following: “Let's look to the future and that this institution that was born with excellence and commitment now has a third niche: the vision of INTEC towards the future. INTEC was at that time like Juan Salvador, the seagull, we wanted to fly high, and we wanted to fly high because this group, still young, intellectually still young, thought that by flying high we would see further, that was the idea," said José Joaquín, and then he looked towards the place where the rector was sitting and, pointing to him, said: “But now, Mr. Rector, INTEC is no longer a dove, it is not Juan Salvador, INTEC is an eagle.” And are those messages which, based on the legacy we have received, inspire us to look towards the next fifty years.

For this reason, in September of the year before last, more than 40 of us met for three days in Bayahibe, where we only saw the beach in the moonlight, because we worked from dawn to dusk, beginning the formulation of this Institutional Strategy. From that September to December of last year, when this Strategy received approval from the Board of Regents, it has been a participatory work, in which we have teachers, administrative collaborators, students, regents, graduates and related the different spheres of society, because an institutional strategy can only be carried out with the large or small contribution of many. And that is the call we make now. Above all, because we remember the words of Arthur C. Clark, the prolific science fiction and popular science author whom many of us know from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, who said that “The big problem of our days is that the future is no longer what it used to be.”, and we know that we have an uncertain and challenging future ahead of us. In that sense, we formulated an institutional strategy in which, faithful to the original mission of INTEC, of ​​being an institution committed to the social transformation of the country to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants through higher education, science and technology , we are also committed to continuing to be an innovative and complementary institution, in more contemporary terms: innovative and differentiated. Thus, we have chosen four main pillars or purposes for this new strategy.

The first is to be a leader due to its training in scientific and technological activities with an offer that is not only updated but anticipatory. With students trained with a solid STEAM foundation.

A second central strategic purpose is to establish or ratify ourselves as a preferred partner of the government, business and organized civil society sectors, in projects for the competitive and sustainable development of our country.

A third great strategic purpose is to develop ourselves as a demanding and welcoming institution, because as our parents said, “courteous does not take away from bravery.”

And a fourth purpose is to be a space worthy of the moral and material support of society for its continuity and development.

From these four strategic purposes, seven strategic guidelines are derived, to which we specify eleven strategic results with which we are going to measure the fulfillment of that institutional strategy.

What I have to say today, fundamentally, is that we are designing a management system in which we place as much emphasis on the formulation of the strategy, to identify the strategic projects, to identify the operational plans articulated to the strategy and to support it with a system for evaluating the performance of managers that, based on the fulfillment of these strategic purposes, through projects and operational plans. And that is the commitment that we must reaffirm.

The Anglo-Saxons have a very strong expression that says: “put your money where your mouth is”, bet with your money on what you say and proclaim. And that is the call I make today, that, with this management system, with the definition of strategic projects, with the assurance of the articulation between the strategy and the operational plans and with a performance evaluation aligned to the strategic projects and operational plans, which will apply to all our managers, let's put our money where we put our proclamation. Because only with the contribution of each one of us, greater or lesser, will we be able to fulfill that institutional strategy.

Finally, I want to refer to the spirit that we inherited to comply with this strategy. The spirit is that of the symbology that our communications technicians and managers have chosen and that is that since 1972 we set out to reach the Moon, but now, with this strategy, our horizon is Mars.

We have received, concomitant with our fiftieth anniversary, the award that we went from the Latin American regional ranking, as if it were a second class ranking, to the world ranking of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the British firm, which prepares one of the first world rankings, world ranking in which we come in first place among the universities of the Dominican Republic. And this year, to eliminate any suspicion that it had been the effect of chance, we repeated in the 2023 ranking and again in first place among Dominican universities, but we enjoyed because last month we were given a certification that we are rated among the five best universities in the Caribbean.

This recognizes the more than 7 thousand collaborators who over 51 years have been or are developing INTEC and commits us even more, because now the most difficult thing is to maintain ourselves and elevate to other higher levels. And we are sure that we can do it, because it was done when an INTEC started with the classrooms borrowed from the Colegio Dominicano de la Salle and, after moving to its current location, it only had the little house in the Los Fundadores building and the students of the INTEC recognized each other because, when we left this campus, which was a pasture, we had dirt and mud on our feet. And today we already have this small but intense and vibrant campus, but more than because of the campus, we feel confident because of its people. IF we did it yesterday, we will do it in the future.

Let us assume this Institutional Strategy 2023-2027 with commitment and sense of urgency. That, as the unforgettable teacher Leonard Bernstein said: “To To achieve great things you need two things: a plan and not having enough time".

This is the commitment that I make as rector and to which I commit to participate with all of you, knowing that without this effort from each of us we will not comply with the motto that we have chosen for this institutional strategy and the motto is: Forging future today , accompanied by a phrase; Fast Forward, which I would like us all to repeat over time and which, in good Dominican, could simply be translated into “go ahead".

Thank you very much.