Budget Office welcomes new representative from IDB Fiscal Management Division: cooperation and joint support reaffirmed

The Budget Director, along with a technical team, received the new IDB representative, who will assume her duties next March, with the aim of further strengthening working relationships and cooperation with the international organization.

The director of the General Budget Directorate (DIGEPRES)José Rijo Presbot welcomed Zoila Navarro, the new representative of the Fiscal Management Division of the Inter-American Development Bank. (IDB), with whom he discussed topics of common interest, projects sponsored by the IDB and continuing to strengthen working ties and joint cooperation.

During the meeting, the Budget Director was accompanied by Iván Ramírez, Deputy Budget Director; Ariel Zaltsman, current representative of IDB in Fiscal Management until March 2026; Odilys Hidalgo, Director of Budgetary Services; Rafael Jovine, Director of Economic Studies and Financial Monitoring; Ana Miguelina Terrero, in charge of Budgetary Performance Evaluation; Sorangel González Díaz, in charge of Budget Economic Analysis and Studies; Karla Ureña, in charge of the Planning and Development Department; María Victoria Ortíz, in charge of the Standards and Methodologies Department and Gellmns Gil, project coordinator of the Budget Planning and Development Department.

The Budget Director, José Rijo Presbot, addressing those present, highlighted the importance of international cooperation to continue promoting projects and strategies for the benefit of the country. “It is important to align cooperation at a single table that allows for the establishment of financial and technical support on the national agenda.”Rijo Presbot said in his speech.

Zoila Navarro, who begins her term next March, expressed her desire to continue contributing technical capabilities to the institution to strengthen the growth and efficiency of public spending in the Dominican Republic. “Our technical support and internal dialogue in favor of agendas for increased public spending, actions in favor of climate change and gender equality and SIGEF“Navarro said this as part of the follow-up to the joint work between DIGEPRES and the IDB.

In anticipation of the visit of representatives of IDBBudget technicians presented the actions they have been carrying out in conjunction with the institution. Among the milestones presented were the classification of public climate spending and disaster risk management, a methodology for monitoring and evaluating public spending on gender and climate issues in the country, budget programs, the redesign of budget classifications, and the new manual.

María Victoria Ortiz outlined the technical aspects to strengthen the implementation process of the Financial Management Information System. (SIGEF 2.0)which seeks to link the physical and financial management of the budget, integrating multi-year planning to make informed and timely decisions for the benefit of citizens. For his part, Gellmns Gil highlighted the interest of DIGEPRES to ensure that this financial instrument becomes a benchmark as a national system.

For her part, Ana Miguelina highlighted the development of the climate spending classifier in budget formulation, the gender classification, and the impact on proposals and reports, also indicating that the Dominican Republic is an international benchmark in climate matters from a budgetary perspective.

During the presentation of the topics, those present discussed current projects for the country, as well as their interest in further strengthening their current and future collaborative work. Finally, Rafael Joviene highlighted the positive experiences with other foreign cooperation agencies and the work and improvements to be made to current processes between the two organizations.

DIGEPRES-IDB Cooperation

It is recalled that the General Directorate of Budget (DIGEPRES) and the Inter-American Development Bank carry out alliances to strengthen financial management, results-based budgeting, investment and public spending, and the modernization of the System SIGEFCooperation that seeks to optimize budget planning and execution with a view to achieving sustainable development goals in the country.