Private Sector Development The objective of the grant is build capacity in the State Committee for Investment and   State Property Management (SCISPM).   The SCISPM has a broad mandate for implementing measures to support private sector development in the country, including efforts to improve the business and investment climate, privatization of state-owned assets and the attraction of foreign direct investment, and support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.    In particular, the SCISPM has been mandated  to oversee the implementation of a private sector strategy, based on strategy recently developed by the Bank in collaboration with the donor community and the Government.    The strategy focuses largely on the implementation of a series of investment climate reforms. Specifically, the Grant will support the SCISPM by (i) proposing an enhanced organizational structure, including suggested staffing requirements and competencies as well as workflow processes;  (ii) helping to develop staff capabilities and expertise; and (iii) assisting in the development of management information systems necessary to support  SCISPM operations. The SCISPM, created by government decree in late 2006, is an amalgamation of several state agencies.    As such it lacks a cohesive organizational structure with effective liaison between departments.  There is considerable overlap between units and duplication of managers' areas of responsibility, while key areas such as monitoring and evaluation have not been addressed.    In particular, there is a lack of coordination between agency headquarters in Dushanbe and its various regional offices located throughout the country, which complicates supervision and monitoring of agency work around the country.   The Grant would assist it in helping to identify an optimal organizational structure, introduce a human resources function to help match personnel with required areas of expertise and advise on improving project management and optimal work flows between departments. Agency personnel lack sufficient knowledge and expertise in key areas of the agency's mandates.    The merger of several agencies into the SCISPM resulted in staff reductions and assignment of new and additional responsibilities to staff without the necessary expertise or training, particularly in areas related to the implementation of the private sector development strategy.   Staff training programs are lacking and there is no central coordination and planning of staff training requirements.    The Grant will help identify a training officer and advise on the development of a staff training strategy and program.   It will also initiate a training of trainers program to ensure ongoing training for new staff as well as staff in regional offices.   The Grant will support the development of a distance learning course in the basics of investment climate reform and provide the equipment needed to enable interaction with instructors and presenters located in other countries, so that staff may benefit from the experience of officials involved in private sector development in other CIS countries and elsewhere. Finally, the Grant will support the development of key management information systems to help fulfill its mandates.    Though the SCISPM is responsible for the management of state property - much of which is intended to be privatized - it lacks a database of state properties.   Similarly, its mandate in foreign investment promotion is hampered by a lack of an information system on foreign investment in the country.    It would also increase efficiency through the computerization of much of its daily operational work. TF091466 The IDF grant will support the development of a training function and distance learning course designed to build capacity in the State Committee for Investment and State Property Management (SCISPM) to implement reforms to promote the development of the private sector. The SCISPM has a broad mandate for implementing measures to the country's investment climate, managing state-owned property, attracting foreign direct investment and supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses. In particular, the SCISPM has been mandated to oversee the implementation of a private sector development (PSD) strategy, which was approved in the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and subsequently elaborated in a report recently developed as a result of collaboration between the Bank, donor community and the government. The government's PSD strategy focuses largely on the implementation of a series of investment climate reforms, including the elimination of administrative barriers to investment and constraints to business entry and development, improvements to enterprise access to finance, and various related legal, regulatory and judicial reforms.  Specifically, the Grant will support the SCISPM's PSD reform mandate by building institutional capacity through assistance to the agency in the development of (i) staff capabilities and expertise in relevant PSD issues; and (ii) management information systems necessary to support and enhance SCISPM operations. The grant will be coordinated closely with another grant being provided jointly by ADB and DfID which will inter alia provide a plan for the restructructuring of the agency. It is expected that the restructuring plan will help to improve organizational structure by rationalizing staffing requirements and competencies, which will be supported under the IDF grant by the introduction of a staff training function, the implementation of a training of trainers program and the creation and delivery of distance learning programs. (The restructuring plan was included in an earlier version of this proposal but in the interest of coordination and to prevent duplication, it was agreed with ADB and DfID that the IDF grant would focus on training and related capacity building efforts while the ADB/DfID grant would pursue the rationalization of the structure of the agency. See Other Donor Financing)  Agency personnel lack sufficient knowledge and expertise in key areas of the agency&#146;s mandates. The merger of several agencies expertise or training, particularly in areas related to the implementation of the private sector development strategy. Staff training programs are lacking and there is no central coordination and planning of staff training requirements.  The grant will help identify a training officer and advise on the development of a staff training strategy and program. It will also initiate a training of trainers program to ensure ongoing training for new staff as well as staff in regional offices. The grant will support the development of a distance learning course in the basics of investment climate reform and provide the electronic equipment needed to enable interaction with instructors and presenters located in other countries, so that staff will benefit from the experience of officials involved in private sector development in other CIS republics and elsewhere, despite the country&#146;s remote location and without incurring the expense of on-site presentations. This activity will help ensure that agency staff learn what they need to know about investment climate reform in order to ensure that the government plays an integral role in the development and implementation of the PSD components, in the process ensuring that components reflect the needs of the country and are not simply left to the work of the international consultants and donor agencies that will provide support. For these reasons the equipment can be expected to support learning programs conducted in the future, in addition to the distance learning program to be developed under this grant. In addition, the team of trainers trained under the grant will deliver the distance learning course to new and regional agency staff.  The grant will support the development of key database management systems to help improve the agency's institutional capacity to fulfill its mandates. Though the SCISPM is responsible for the management of state property, it lacks a database of these properties. Similarly, its mandate in foreign investment promotion is hampered by a lack of an information systems on foreign investment in the country. It would also increase efficiency through the computerization of much of its daily operational work. These databases would help to build institutional capacity by enabling the agency to effectively control and management property, assisting it in maintain these properties and/or determining how and for how much they should be sold. The agency will thus be better equipped institutionally to attract investment to state-owned enterprises once it has more complete and up-to-date data on them and on recent foreign investments in the country.