From buying a bottle of water for consumption to putting gas in the vehicle with a dispensing machine, every product and service that Dominicans receive must be supported by the highest standards of quality and security.
Ensure compliance with these standards demanded by the market is the role played by the Dominican Institute for Quality (Indocal), a entity which would require up to 25% more of the transfers currents allocated by the Government – 272.1 million pesos for 2025 – in order to expand and modernize its operations in the country.
“Productive sectors understand that creating standards helps them, not only to improve the productivity of their companies, but also to combat illicit trade and unfair competition”General Director of Indocal.
On a visit to Free Diaryhis director general, Néstor Julio Matos Ureña, explained that the Indocal is the authority that creates the standards that regulate products and services in the market.
Likewise, it evaluates that the measurement equipment – such as scales or dispensers – are correctly calibrated, ensuring compliance with standards local and international.
The rules for packaging waterthe labeling of the food or the certification of traditional agricultural products such as coffee, cocoa or tobacco, are some of the more than 1,000 standards that he Indocal has been carried out, many of which begin at the initiative of the productive sectors that seek them to be more competitive.
“The productive sectors understand that creating standards helps them, not only to improve the productivity of their companies, but also to combat trade illegal and unfair competition,” he highlighted.
In addition, it is the institution that represents the Dominican Republic before the International Organization for Standardization (ISOfor its acronym in English), being in charge of carrying out the conformity evaluations that allow both companies and institutions public, certify whether certain procedures comply with standards ISO or others standards global.
Although standardization is a relevant aspect in all segments that add value to the economy, for this year, Indocal has as a priority the strengthening of regulation in all those that add foreign currency, such as the export, health, food and tourism.
Likewise, it wants to increase its client portfolio, make its roles more visible to consumers, so that they understand its importance, and update the Dominican standards (Nordom), a review that must be done every five years.
There are no branches and technicians
For all these tasks, the institution only has two offices in Santo Domingo and Santiago to cover the demands for their services at the national level, having to move their technicians daily – 33 at headquarters and 10 in the northern regional – to carry out evaluations in areas where they lack access, such as the southern and eastern regions.
“We are working on a proposal, so that both the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the president (Luis Abinader) can support Indocal even moreand we can do more effective and broader work,” he said.
Of the 474.1 million pesos budgeted for the institution this year, 272.1 million correspond to transfers of the Statewhile the rest – equivalent to 175 million pesos – correspond to own funds that the institution generates through its services.
“Open new offices regional would imply a density of resources that, if we do not receive them additionally, it is a project that could not be,” he remarked.
He added that this would also require hiring more staffboth from professionals specialized in strategic sectors to support the committeeyes technicians that evaluate the standardsas of technicians with experience in managing audits and management systems.
Although the institution is making estimates of how much the entity to present it concretely to the authoritiesMatos Ureña announced that the entity could expand branches, hire more staff and modernize its services – even with the incorporation of tools such as artificial intelligence to automate processes – with at least a 25% annual increase in revenue. funds of the Government.
Creation of standards
For the creation of a rulehe Indocal must exhaust a series of steps, among them, the formation of a technical committee with specialists, representatives of the main unions of the sector to which the provision will be directed, and representatives of the consumers of the product or service to be regulated.
The technical committee will study the scope of the rule and the aspects that must be considered.
Likewise, you must compare them with existing international regulations for the preparation of a preliminary draft which, once completed, must be reviewed and approved by the Advice Dominican for the Quality (Codoca), which includes 12 representatives of the government and private sector institutions.
Among the examples of sectors interested in having provisions that guarantee their quality is the vape segment, due to the growing popularity that these devices have had as an alternative to smoking cigarettes in recent years. “That sector asked to create a standard to standardize vapes. There is an association of importers of this product; what they are looking for is that users consume a product that is not harmful to the health of the users, because sometimes products enter that do not meet any type of standard and many sometimes people don’t See, but they are damaging the health of Dominicans. That is where Indocal’s work comes in,” Matos Ureña stressed.
This council meets every three months to review the standards created for the moment, apply revisions and approve them. Despite the importance of regulation, Matos Ureña specified that the entities public and private are not required to comply with a ruleunless provided by law.
Annually, the Indocal approves between 25 and 30 standardsalthough Matos Ureña explained that the entity It hopes to bring this average to 50 a year, with the aim of raising regulations that ensure quality in all productive segments of the country.
