Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) Egypt Office, in partnership with Korea Institute for Development Strategy (KDS), conducted an online training programme for the Ministry of Finance, entitled “Capacity Development of Public Financial Management for the Ministry of Finance Leaders”, that started on August 1st and ended on August 11.
This programme consists of 3-year consecutive capacity-building programmes, starting this year and continuing up to 2024.
The training included workshops and lectures which covered Korea’s financial management systems and modernization of the taxation and customs system, in addition to lectures discussing topics such as innovation in the government procurement system and financial audit.
On August 10, KOICA Egypt Office and Ministry of Finance hosted a closing ceremony for the first batch of trainees. The ceremony was attended by Dr Ahmed Ashraf Kouchouk, Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies and Institutional Reform, Mr. Choi Byoung Sun, Minister Plenipotentiary from the Embassy of Republic of Korea, Mrs. Kim Jinyoung, KOICA Egypt Office Country Director, and various other heads of departments.
During the ceremony, Dr. Ahmed Kouchouksaid:“This capacity building programme is significant in enhancing the efficiency of the Ministry of Finance’s employees, as extracting lessons from South Korea’s success story is beneficial for any country in its path towards development.”
“The action plans developed by the trainees during the training period will get great attention from the Ministry. In this regard, a series of meetings will be conducted with the trainees to determine which ones go in line with the Ministry’s current strategy and the Ministry will follow up with the implementation,” he added.
On his part, Mr. Choi Byoungsaid:“This training comes in light of the Korean government’s designation of Egypt as a priority development partner during the period from 2021 to 2025.
“This is the start of further co-operation to enhance and expand the scopes of the partnership between the two governments,” he added.
Mrs. Kim, the newly appointed Country Director of KOICA Egypt Office commented saying: “I was very pleased listening to all the action plans presented by the attendees,especially because Pubic finance management and public procurement are two things that cannot be separated. We hope this training programme can synergise with a joint project with the ministry for enhancing e-procurement system.”
KOICA and the Ministry of Finance are planning to embark on a joint project for enhancing the e-procurement system in Egypt. This project aims to build an electronic procurement system that can increase the efficiency and transparency of the public procurement process.
KOICA and the Ministry will also re-engineer the business process to ensure that it is aligned with the institutional framework, and develop a roadmap for the delivery and implementation of the new system across the public sector.
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