ENTRY FORM AAPAM AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT COMPETITION 2008

Transcription

1 ENTRY FORM AAPAM AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT COMPETITION

2 ENTRY FORM I. Name of the organization or candidate MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE Type of entity PUBLIC RGANIZATION Category of the project INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS IN SERVICE DELIVERY Country where the project is based REPUBLIC Of MOZAMBIQUE Level - NATIONAL II. Name of the project of the candidate PRIVATE SECTOR SUPPORT OFFICE III. Contact person - OLGA GOMES Tel Fax Mobile Organization - MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE Postal Address Address PRAÇA 25 DE JUNHO, Nº 300, MAPUTO CITY. Names of the initiators of the project Oldemiro Baloi Olga Gomes Carlos Morgado João José Macaringue Names of the elements of the project Julieta Domingas Muchine Nuno Bonfim Hortense Uetela Alexandre Muchate Francisco Chacha Cláudio Cuambe General Perspective of the Project 2

3 The Government of Mozambique has assigned to Ministry of Industry and Trade the responsibility of coordinating all private sector activities and create an attractive environment for development of businesses and investments. In order for operationalizing the Government decision, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has set up GASP- Private Sector Support Office. Among its assignments, the following strategic actions are distinguished among others: Promoting the dialogue between private and public sectors; Elaboration of the strategy for developments of small and medium enterprises; Simplification of economic activity licensing procedure; Creation of a single inspection of the economic activity. GASP has been functioning for 11 years, that is, since year The innovative aspect is that GASP appears as the first technical project of the government which is dedicated specifically to the coordination of the dialogues of Public Sector/Private Sector. Its creation results from the experience accumulated since the beginning of economic reforms initiated in midst 80s and have gained momentum with the end of the war in the country. In this context, the Ministry of Industry and Trade was tasked to find mechanisms of approximation with national business sector and subsequent creation of a platform of permanent dialogue, thus taking leadership of the process and at the same time the role of Government focal point Other innovative aspect is that GASP switched into being the coordination entity of the projects promoted by donors in the scope of support to private sector, eliminating the dispersing and lack of coordination of efforts and resources thus far existing. On the other side, there was lack of coordination within the government at the level of the economic ministries in what regarded the general interest of the private sector. As a form of suppression of this disagreement, the Government has created Interministerial Group for Removal of Administrative Barriers to the Business Environment, which groups the main sectors of economic coordination, whose coordination is done by Gabinete de Apoio ao Sector Privado. (i) Achievements Among the relevant aspects of GASP, are highlighted: Substantial improvement of the mechanisms of dialogue between government and the private sector, through the conduction of annual conferences, with participation of the government including the President of the Republic; 3

4 Conduction of semestrial meetings with the Prime Minister for accompaniment of the works performed in the process of articulation Government/Private Sector; Permanent consultancies at sectoral level, through regional conferences. In these activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the Focal Point of the government, that is, coordinates all government actions, and coordinates all actions of dialogue mechanisms of assessment and implementation. From 2006, as a result of the improvement of quality of institutional interaction between the government and the private sector at central level, the process is expanded to regional and provincial levels. Other mechanism of articulation between the Public/Private Sector and Partners was de following of the group called Private Sector Working Group. In this forum, the government is represented by GASP which sits monthly to discuss issues of development and improvement of the business environment in general, including permanent assessment of the articulation between Public, Private Sector and international Partners. Another project result is the elaboration and approval of Small and Medium Enterprises Strategy early The objective of the strategy consubstantiate on the one side in the removal of obstacles to initiatives of development of small and medium enterprises, tax issues, access to credit, among others. On the other side, they view to stimulate the transformation of informal sector into formal of the national economy. Institutionalization and functioning of One Stop Shops in all provincial capitals and other cities, where the citizen and any foreign investor can, in only one place benefit from a wide range of services with view to initiate a process of registration or licensing of the company. Procedures of registration and licensing of companies were more simplified and fast, through the reduction of the bureaucratic charge (requirements) and the response time, decentralization of competences, legal reform, and introduction of computer-based system in process of registration and issuing of authorization titles. Easy access to a means of consultation of norms and procedures for the licensing of diverse activities of economic nature or related, by phone and , with the availability of a specialized service. (CALL CENTER/Center for Business Information). 4

5 As a result of the reforms and of the introduction and implementation of increasingly simplified systems as far as licensing is concerned, the Country has been experiencing improvements in its position in Doing Business Ranking, moving from 140 to 134 positions in year In order to meet the challenges of development of private sector, in the component of improvement of business environment in all economic spheres, the government is bent on the elaboration of the Strategy for Improvement of Business Environment, an important instrument for making increasingly flexible the conditions of growth of small and medium enterprises and of integration of the informal sector which may be completed and approved by later this years. With view to correct recurrent situations of dispersion of efforts and duplication and overlapping of inspective actions in the economic sector, including the introduction and practice of multisectoral inspection, preventive and educational inspection to companies, it is in progress the process of creation of IGAE General Inspection of Economic Activities. (ii) Sustainability and Duplication The project has a great acceptance within the business class and constitutes a valuable instrument for permanent consultation and dialogue between the Private and Public Sector and the economic cooperation partners, considering that through them the main concerns of functioning and development of the companies and of the business environment in general in the Country are agglutinated. Gradually, the project is being implemented at national level through the continuous effort of legal reform and of simplification of the mechanisms of consultation and dialogue between the Public and Private Sector. Easy access to citizens or investors in the search and consultation of information about the registration and requirements for licensing companies. The project is supported by the State budget and of support budget under the cooperation with its economic partners interested in the improvement of business environment and sustainable development of the country. (iii) Challenges and Lessons The government believes that the economic growth of the Country will naturally depend on the development of the private sector. But this does not constitute an immediate and easy task, lacking the conjugation of efforts for its materialization. The expectation is to search significant results, namely: Creation of job opportunities; Faster delivery of services; 5

6 Reform of fiscal policy for improvement of socioeconomic conditions; Increase direct national and foreign investment; Bring the informal sector to the formal; Expand the mechanisms of consultation and dialogue to the districts. The challenges are substantiated in the reaching of improved efforts in the legal reform, in reduction and simplification of obstacles to economic development, through specialized consultations with view to the national development of the business sector. It is equally predicted a constant improvement of material, infrastructural and legal conditions, with the support of an economic growth, with the consequent reduction of absolute poverty. This is only effective with the fast implementation of the measures adopted decurrent of the dialogue of the Government and Private Sector. (iv) Relation of the project in the category on Innovative Partnerships in service delivery. The nature and specifications of the objectives of the project, sustain for the fact of this being an important innovation in the processes of auscultation, dialogue and partnership between the government and private sector, in causes and objectives of development. Special attention rests in the fact that the State relying the development of the country on the growth of the private sector which constitutes the main motor of development of the Country, something new in the experience of Mozambique. This project allows the government and the private sector to conduct consultations and reach consensus on relevant issues and of impact on economic and social life, for example in the elaboration of the recent labor law, fixation of minimum wage, social protection, partnership in investments, through the creation of companies with public/private investment etc. On the other side, the Project is basically focused to joint efforts between the Government and private sector; consubstantiate in the fight against absolute poverty. (v) Funding to the project It functions with basis on public funds, that is, from the State budget, but international cooperation partners support some actions in the form of assistance such as: elaboration of strategies, studies, workshops and supply of computer equipment. (vi) Other bids in which the Project has tendered. The Project does not participate much as bidding, but its activities are periodically assessed by Doing Business mechanisms of the World Bank. 6

7 On the other side, the Project participates regularly in various forums of SADC region in workshops of exchange of experiences. For instance, the Project took part in the Conference of Improvement of Business, in Egypt in 2005, Republic of South Africa in 2006; and in Ghana in (vii) How did you come to know about the bidding? The referred bidding was brought to the knowledge of the Project through the Ministry of Public service which participated in the 29th Annual Conference of the African Association of Public Management and Administration AAPAM, held in Ezulwine (Mbabane - Swaziland) in Summary of the Project For the government elected in the general and multipartite elections of 1994, the problem of development of the business sector constituted on of the main objectives of its programme. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism was left with the task of finding mechanisms of dialogue with the private sector. For this end, the private sector was structured, creating the Confederation of Business Associations and an interlocutor body of the government GASP Private Sector Support Office. GASP is vacationed to establish mechanisms of permanent dialogue Government/private sector, to respond to their concerns and a leverage of development. Certification of the project I, NUNO BONFIM, do hereby agree that the information disclosed by myself in this document is correct and was approved by JULIETA DOMINGAS MUCHINE Signature Name_ Nuno Bonfim Signature Date: 16th November,