Tashkent. Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 18 March, the work of the plenary session of the Budget Community on the mutual study and exchange of experience in Public Finance Management (PEMPAL), organized by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, began.

The plenary session was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Finance Dzhamshid Anvarovich Kuchkarov. In his speech, Jamshid Kuchkarov drew attention to the work on reforming the state budget of the country and noted that the holding of a plenary session in Uzbekistan would create a basis for further improving certain aspects of the management of public finances in our country. At the end of his speech, the Minister of Finance publicly announced the next regular meeting of the Budget Community and wished the participants success in their future work.

Head of the World Bank’s Office in Uzbekistan Mr. Hideki Mori and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Budget Community Anna Belenchuk also spoke at the opening ceremony of the plenary session. In their presentations, they talked about ongoing work and advances in public financial management (PEMPAL) in the regions of Europe and Central Asia.

More than 60 international financial experts and specialists from more than 20 countries of the Budget Community took part in this event.

The PEMPAL international training program was organized in 2005 jointly with the World Bank, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. It is aimed at improving the public finance management system in 23 countries of Central Asia and Europe, as well as at improving the skills of local specialists through training seminars and comparative analysis of the PFM systems of the regions.

The PEMPAL structure consists of three communities of practice - the Budget, Treasury and the Internal Audit community, which hold regular meetings to discuss issues of professional interest.

Currently, large-scale work is underway to ensure transparency of budget information and active participation of citizens in the budget process. In this regard, the experience of developed countries and the study of best practices in this field are important.

For the period 2012-2017, as part of the PEMPAL training program, more than 130 thematic events were held in various formats to discuss reform issues, including representatives of our country actively participating. The “Internal Audit” community meeting was held in October 2017 in Tashkent.

On the first day of the meeting, presentations of experts in the field of public finance, such as Croatia, the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, were held. In particular, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan Dilshod Sultanov made a report on reforms in the field of budget transparency and civil participation in the budget process in Uzbekistan.

At the end of the opening ceremony, it was noted that the agenda includes trainings and presentations on budget processes and their involvement in the general public, which will last until 22 March.