CNC and INTEC sign agreement to strengthen Dominican SMEs

Santo Domingo. The National Competitiveness Council (CNC) and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) signed an agreement in which they undertake to execute a technical assistance project for the national industry, with a view to promoting the adoption of quality processes in small and medium-sized Dominican companies.

The project involves 6.4 million pesos, of which the CNC will contribute 4.9 million pesos in cash and technical assistance, while INTEC will contribute 1.5 million pesos in technical and administrative personnel, facilities, university facilities, and equipment. 

Through the project, a large number of SMEs will receive support from INTEC specialists, who will help them adopt improvements with which they will be able to participate in the next version of the National Award for Quality in the Private Sector, for more information visit www.pnc.org.do. INTEC will be responsible for the execution of the project, which will last one year from June 15.

For work in SMEs, the application of the Award's Business Self-Diagnosis Form (FAE) will be taken as a reference, since it is used as one of the application routes, and follows the criteria and uses the reference standards of the Malcolm Award. Baldrige of the United States.

The technical assistance, as well as the training, the promotion of the prize and the administration of the project will be the direct responsibility of the high house of studies, which will establish an executing unit of the same in its own facilities. In the first phase, work will be done with between 40 and 50 companies.

The project is part of a broad set of initiatives by INTEC and the productive sector, which also complements other initiatives such as the International Trade Observatory, of which the institution is a part together with other public and private institutions.

To facilitate the implementation of improvements in SMEs, the project contemplates the support of INTEC professors and students, thus reinforcing the necessary company-university link, of great importance for the competitive development of the Dominican industrial sector, a theme taken into account in the proposals presented. as a result of the recent 2nd. Industrial Congress of the DR.

The CNC will supervise and channel the financial resources for the execution of the project to the extent that it receives them from the National Budget. Upon signing the agreement, the CNC commits to a first disbursement of 900 pesos, while the remaining resources will be made available in three other payments. 

For the CNC, the agreement was signed by Andrés van der Horst Álvarez, Secretary of State and executive director of the institution, while Rolando Guzmán, rector of Intec, signed it by the high house of studies. The agreement was made at the CNC facilities.

César Nicolás Penson participated in the signing as a witness, on behalf of the Technical Secretariat of the Award and in substitution of Wadi Cano, President of the Association of Industrial Companies of Herrera and Santo Domingo Province (AEIH).

The agreement establishes that INTEC will design the methodology, the operation of the project and the intervention strategy in SMEs, as well as the design of the training of teachers and students in the application of the business self-diagnosis model.