Dushanbe, March 15, 2007 —
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, and Tajikistan’s National Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiologic Supervision of the Ministry of Health have signed a joint action plan to promote cooperation between the two organizations. The objective is to work together to improve sanitary supervision procedures in Tajikistan according to the Inspections Law adopted by the government in the summer of 2006.
“With the signing of this action plan we confirm our ministry’s commitment to work with IFC and comply with the sanitary regulations under the new Inspections Law,” said Mr. Samariddin Aliev, Head of the National Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiologic Supervision. “We are dedicated to inspections reform, in particular, to make each inspection more thorough and effective, as well as improve sanitary conditions at the country’s economic entities. The emphasis at this stage will be to develop inspections checklists that will clearly outline sanitary requirements and facilitate compliance by entrepreneurs.”
A draft, easy-to-read, sample checklist for catering entities was distributed to participants at the signing ceremony. Signing of the action plan follows the two-year collaboration between the National Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiologic Supervision and IFC’s Business Enabling Environment/Small and Medium Enterprises Policy Project, which was financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. This collaboration resulted in the government’s development and adoption of the Inspections Law.
IFC Project Manager Andrea Dall’Olio said, "Our collaboration with National Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiologic Supervision in inspections should increase compliance with sanitary requirements and reduce the burden for entrepreneurs."
The plan contains a detailed list of actions for both parties to undertake in 2007, including: setting up risk categories for the economic entities and elaborating general inspection rules and specific checklists for each category of entities inspected by the National Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiologic Supervision; building capacity of sanitary inspectors through training; and organizing ongoing informational campaigns on the new rules and regulations.
About IFC
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes open and competitive markets in developing countries. IFC supports sustainable private sector companies and other partners in generating productive jobs and delivering basic services, so that people have opportunities to escape poverty and improve their lives. Through FY06, IFC Financial Products has committed more than $56 billion in funding for private sector investments and mobilized an additional $25 billion in syndications for 3,531 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC Advisory Services and donor partners have provided more than $1 billion in program support to build small enterprises, to accelerate private participation in infrastructure, to improve the business enabling environment, to increase access to finance, and to strengthen environmental and social sustainability. For more information, please visit
www.ifc.org
.
About SECO
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs is the Swiss Confederation's competence center for all the core issues related to economic policy. Its aim is to create basic regulatory and economic policy conditions to enable business to flourish and benefit all. SECO also represents Switzerland in the large multilateral trade organizations and international negotiations, and is involved in efforts to reduce poverty and help developing countries with transition economies build sustainable democratic societies and viable market economies. Each year, Switzerland spends about 1.9 billion Swiss francs on development cooperation and transition assistance to countries.
