Mr. Max Puig, presidential candidate

Mrs. Ana María Ramos, President of the Board of Regents of INTEC.

Members of the Board of Regents and the Academic Council,
Past rectors and regents, authorities, professors, students and collaborators of INTEC.

Ladies and gentlemen accompanying the presidential candidate
Friends present.

During the last years, a crisis of great proportions has put its threatening fist against the main economies of the world. In Europe and the United States in particular, millions of men and women are frightened by the twin ghosts of recession and unemployment, as they see living standards that until recently believed to be guaranteed fall.

Although this crisis has not affected our country with the same intensity, it is unquestionable that it has weakened our growth capacity in the medium term and that its final consequences are still unpredictable. Experience teaches us, however, that the occurrence of a crisis is fertile ground for new schemes of social policies to germinate, and for societies to be encouraged to explore paths not yet explored.

Put another way, the crisis represents an opportunity for the strengthening of leaders who until now have not had a way to achieve power, but who possess the courage, ability and ingenuity necessary to respond to the demand for new paradigms.

In correspondence with this, and being faithful to its commitment to the promotion of plurality, the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo It has seen fit - and more than convenient, necessary - to incorporate some of these emerging voices into this scenario. The intention is to allow our community the opportunity to dialogue with leaders who
They can provide new, but perhaps not widespread, views on the current Dominican reality.

With that goal in mind, I am pleased to welcome our guest, the presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy party, Dr. Max Puig, whom we thank for accepting our Invitation. Dr. Max Puig is a prominent Dominican sociologist, professor, and politician, a native of the northern city of Puerto Plata. He studied Law at the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of the University of Paris, an institution where he also obtained a degree in Letters and Sciences.

After his return to the country, he reached the status of full professor of the Chair of sociology of underdevelopment at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), and served as a teacher of the Master's degrees in Advanced Studies in Social Sciences at the same educational center.
In the period 1990-1994, he was senator of the Dominican Republic for his native province, and during the period 1996-2000, he served as Secretary of State, National Authorizing Officer for the European Development Funds for the Dominican Republic, among other positions of equal relevance.

He has represented his country as the designated National Responsible for the different negotiations and agreements concerning official relations between the European Union and ACP countries, and has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences, summits and seminars. Among the distinctions he has received is his election as a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic and the decoration of the Legion of Honor in the rank of Commander, which was awarded by the government of France.

During the 2004-2008 government I held the position of Secretary of State for the Environment. Finally, in 2008 he was appointed Minister of Labor, a position he resigned to join the political campaign as the presidential candidate of the Alianza por la Democracia party. It is in that condition that we received you this afternoon.

Mr. Candidate, Mr. Max Puig, I warmly welcome you to INTEC, while I politely invite you to take the main table that we have reserved for you.