The visit was organized in order to review the experience of this country in budget reforms, development and implementation of a medium-term budget strategy and performance-based budgeting as well as for the purposes of introduction to development of targeted budget programs of major ministries – budget recipients.

The visit was arranged by United Nations Development Programme Public Finance Reform in Uzbekistan Project, Assistance to the Process of Developing Welfare Improvement Strategy Project and Enhancing Statistical Capacity of the Monitoring and Reporting System for implementation of Millennium Development Goals and PEMPAL – educational programme of the World Bank focused on building the capacity of the governments in Europe and Central Asia in reforming public finance.

The delegation visited the key ministries and agencies in Slovakia involved in development, implementation, and monitoring of the medium-term budget and performance-based budgeting. The meetings were arranged with the officials of budget departments of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, Welfare, and Family Affairs as well as the Institute of Fiscal Policy and World Bank office in Bratislava.

The representatives of the ministries made an introduction to the budget process and draft budget of Slovakia for 2008-2010, special welfare programs, guidelines, and instructions to draft programme budget for the delegation.

Issues related to developing medium-term budget, budget analysis, forecasting tax revenues and expenditures based on resource limitations, budget changes, ensuring budget transparency, and methods of drafting, implementing, and monitoring sector-based dedicated budget programs were reviewed in the study tour.

The delegation got acquainted with the prospects of budget reforms in Slovakia, integration processes with the budget of the European Union as well as ICT solutions for public finance management in Slovakia.

The local outcomes of budget reforms were reviewed in the course of the study tour, and the delegation learned about the opinion and work of executors of the budget reforms.

The Slovak experience in developing and implementation of the medium-term results-based budgeting will be taken into account while developing medium-term budget strategy for Uzbekistan.

Reviewed experience of norm-based educational funding, including the methodologies of capitated funding will be used in developing recommendations to improve school education funding in Uzbekistan, while the methods of forecasting proceeds from certain taxes will be used for medium-term projections of tax proceeds.