Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- UNDP’s ICT Policy project organized a study tour to Vietnam within the initiative on establishing One-Stop-Shops to provide public services to people. The main purpose of the study tour that took place in November 2009 was to learn Vietnam’s best practice in Public Administration Reform (PAR) and the experience in the establishment of One-Stop-Shops (OSS), UNDP Uzbekistan said on its website on 12 December.

During the study tour, Uzbekistan’s delegation, comprising representatives from the Cabinet of Ministers, the Sergeli district administration, UNDP Country Office and UNDP “ICT Policy” project, visited key ministries and agencies involved in PAR in Vietnam such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Central Institute on Economic Management, the Ho Chi Minh city Administration, the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative and Project 30, the international non-governmental organization ActionAid, SDC and UNDP Vietnam.

The management and experts of the visited agencies presented thorough information about their past and ongoing activities and actively involved the Uzbek side into various discussions.

Among the topics discussed, were State Program - Public Administration Reform (PAR); Organizational structure and legislative base for the creation and operation of OSS in Vietnam; OSS technical facilities and equipment; OSS activity monitoring mechanism.

The Vietnam Government’s 2003 Decree “On the establishment of OSS centres all over the country” led to a radical change in the relationship between civil servants and the population, and subsequently resulted in the decrease of bureaucratic hurdles in providing public services in Vietnam.

The visit to the first pilot OSS in Ho Chi Minh city gave a chance to see the PAR reform efficiency. The OSS presents various public services such as registration of entrepreneurship activity, issuance of certificates on cultural activities, permission for civil works, land ownership issues, social security issues, validation of documents, public information.

OSS has proved to be an effective tool in solving such issues as increase of quality and effectiveness of administrative services and transparency in rules and procedures in providing services; saving people’s funds and time via rationalizing procedures; creation of modern facilities with convenient location for the population; provision of quality services from qualified staff.

In Uzbekistan, activities are underway to create facilities for successful implementation of the pilot OSS initiative in the Sergeli district of the Tashkent city.

Based on the analysis of information and materials acquired during study tour to Vietnam, ICTP plans to develop normative-legislative base of OSS implementation and OSS financial sustainability mechanism, system of training and re-training OSS staff, etc.

The study tour gave a chance to establish direct contacts with Vietnamese experts in the OSS initiative implementation as well as to learn current state and problems in PAR in Vietnam.