Initiatives to attract foreign direct investment, as well as to promote exports and tourism are today the main functions of embassies.
In our country these functions are planned very rigorously. At the end of each year, each accredited embassy in a friendly nation presents its Annual Operational Plan in an Excel template for its execution in the following year and there is a very strict follow-up carried out by the Planning Directorate.
Of course, in order to fully comply with the goals that have been set effectively, an Embassy must first be duly supervised in an objective manner, which is equivalent to saying that there can be no “sacred cows” for this activity nor officials who are subject to discrimination in violation of the full rule of law, thank God, instituted in our country.
In addition, they must be endowed with the necessary human and financial resources, bearing in mind the reality of the receiving State. Even more important, the head of the embassy must be a person who has the knowledge, which is duly supported by experience, to carry out these tasks. Usually, this is guaranteed by the fact that the head of the embassy is a career public servant, as long as the processes to obtain that status are carried out with due efficiency.
Unfortunately, when politics and personal interests influence these activities, they are usually detrimental to the performance of embassies, which is why the Organic Laws of the Ministries of Foreign Relations usually include safeguards in that direction.
An example of this is that according to article 70 paragraph II of the Organic Law of the Dominican Foreign Ministry, a head of embassy cannot be removed from his position unless there is no presidential decree.
In the DR, according to the Public Function Law, it is only possible to remove a Head of Embassy from the Diplomatic Service by carrying out due process, following “the forms of Law”. This protection in the DR has constitutional status.
In fact, it is important that we emphasize that diplomacy, like the judiciary, are one of the professions that require the most sacrifice in their exercise. In both professions, the only activity that is allowed in addition to the exercise itself is teaching.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that when governments select the officials who will definitively carry out the leadership of an Embassy as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador or provisionally as Chargé d’affaires, they must do so with him due rigor for the purposes of what is You can count on representatives who have a clean resume both in their professional and personal career.
What we have allowed ourselves to expose in this article are minimum requirements so that a nation that aspires to take its objectives and goals of economic development abroad can do that work effectively.