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Youth-Led Innovation Across Dominican Republic
By Guzmán Ariza, Attorneys at Law
The CREA RD project, launched in July 2025, is a national initiative to organize ten regional hackathons across the country, each centered on solving locally relevant challenges. Official authorities frame the project as a platform for young Dominicans aged 18 to 35 to use technology and creativity to address issues such as urban mobility, renewable energy, marine conservation, and agri-industrial development (presidencia.gob.do). The first hackathon, focused on Smart Cities and Urban Mobility, was held in the National District and surrounding Ozama region, bringing together diverse teams to prototype viable community-based solutions.
Each hackathon corresponds to one of ten designated development regions, with themes reflecting region-specific needs. In the Cibao Northwest, the focus is biodiversity and rural innovation; in Yuma, it is smart tourism and digital inclusion. Participants join multidisciplinary teams, attend technical workshops, and receive mentoring from public and private sector experts. Proposals are judged by panels drawn from academia, government, and industry.
Selected ideas will receive ongoing technical support aimed at implementation within their local communities. Organizers argue this follow-up is essential to ensure that innovation results in measurable impact, and not just speculative proposals.
The timing of CREA RD coincides with structural changes in the Dominican Republic’s digital and innovation landscape. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2024 Country Commercial Guide, the Dominican ICT market is valued at approximately USD2.1 billion and has grown at a rate of about 7 percent annually. The country has made significant investments in cloud services, e-government platforms, and digital payment systems. However, challenges persist in last-mile broadband infrastructure and digital literacy in rural áreas.
In terms of global innovation metrics, the Dominican Republic ranked 97th out of 133 economies in the 2024 Global Innovation Index published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), continuing a downward trend from 90th in 2022. This drop reflects difficulties in translating investment and planning into tangible private-sector-led innovation, especially in high-tech industries. The country ranks higher on input pillars—such as government policy and education—than on outputs, which include patents and new business creation.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT), 25 Dominican patents have been registered since 2020, and over 6,400 scientific publications have been indexed.
Guzmán Ariza, Attorneys at Law
Guzmán Ariza is a leading full-service law firm in the Dominican Republic, consistently ranked among the country’s top-tier firms by the most prominent global legal directories such as Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500.
With ten strategically located offices across the nation's principal business and tourism hubs, we are uniquely positioned to support clients in seizing opportunities within the largest and fastest-growing economy in Central America and the Caribbean.
Our multilingual team is well-versed in advising international clients across a broad spectrum of practice areas. In the field of intellectual property, we offer robust counsel and representation in both commercial transactions and litigation. Our services cover trademark and trade name protection, copyright and patent registration and enforcement, as well as licensing, assignments, and the transfer of IP rights.
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