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SME Legal Environment Meeting Minutes, November 18, 2005 November 18, 2005 ? 14.00-15:30 - . IFC Private Enterprise Partnership Tajikistan Office
It was planned to have discussions focusing on Foreign Trade Regulation reform, however due to the absence of key projects and organizations involved in this area, participants decided to leave this topic for the next meeting. Discussions were held focusing on the issues below.
- ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLATIONS CODE
Updates on preparation of draft new Code ? IFC SME Survey and Policy Project
Florentin Blanc informed participants about the current situation with the preparation of a new Administrative Violations Code. In the framework of its cooperation with the office of the State Advisor to the President for Legal Affairs, Mr Shoev, the project received a request to help with the translation (in Tajik) of the draft, and later, possibly, with the translation of the Code into English, and its printing, once it is adopted. The project agreed to provide some limited support and requested to have the possibility to distribute the draft among interested parties for additional comments/recommendations.
It should be noted that the previous code, adopted in 1985 was very business-unfriendly. In addition, while it included a lot of sanctions for businesses, it included none for violations committed by state officials against all the ?recent? (last 8-10 years) laws that were supposed to strengthen business rights. As a result, maybe of these reforms have been partially voided of effect, as violations do not have any consequences for state officials. Even recent changes introduced to the A.V.C. after adoption of the new Tax Code provide 2 pages of sanctions for taxpayers, but none for tax employees.
The new version appears at first glance to be much better. IFC SME Survey and Policy project reviewed it and provided some recommendations regarding sanctioning inspectors in case of violations during state inspections (as per the draft Law on Inspections).
Florentin Blanc therefore transmitted proposal coming from Mr. Shoev ? State Advisor on Legal Policy that the available Russian version be circulated among members of SME Legal Environment Working Group and asked them to look at the sections relevant to their work whether the code stipulates proper sanctions for officials, and come back with their comments/suggestions. He added table of contents translated into English would be sent to the group.
As for assistance in translating from Russian into English it was mentioned that due to lack of resources for this purpose the project is unable to complete it fully and suggested that every project allocate funds for translation of different parts of it (appr.20 or more pages) to have a general one as a result.
According to current information printing and distribution of final version to the civil society might get external support but this is still to be confirmed.
- FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Updates by TACIS ITCA, OSCE, IFC
ITCA informed participants that Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tajikistan with financial support of ITCA prepared a 400 page ?Guide for Foreign Investors? which interested people might want to look at. It is available with ITCA project office.
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OSCE updated about the preparation of electronic foreign trade guide to be available through internet which covers wide range of topics including tariffs, country trade conditions, export/import issues. Further details can be inquired from Bahriddin Shermatov.
Regarding the new Customs Code prepared with assistance of USAID-TFI / Pragma Corporation and ADB it was noted that still some unsolved problem remain such as: non tariff barriers, licensing and certification. Analysis of Law on Licensing and Law on External Economic Activity show many problems and contradictions. It was suggested to strengthen cooperation among the projects that have components related to foreign investment component and foreign trade in terms of sharing information about their initiatives/developments.
- DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
Updates on SME survey ? IFC SME Survey and Policy
SME Survey and Policy project updated participants about widescale survey among SMEs in Tajikistan to be conducted early next year within the framework of the project.
The preliminary schedule for the whole process is as follows:
- December?05 ? January?06 ? finalising tender proposals
- February?06 ? conducting survey among 2500 entrepreneurs
- Mid. March?06 ? having main findings (raw data)
- Mid. April?06 ? analysis of the results
- May-June?06 ? presentation of basic results to stakeholders
- August?06 ? report submission to the Government
The first draft of questionnaire has been prepared by the project and is to be circulated among Working Group members to get their feedback for further improvement.
List of participants:
USAID-LIME / ARD-Checchi, IFC Tajikistan SME Project, FIAS/MIGA Improvement of Investment Climate and Investment Facilitation Project in Tajikistan, OSCE, KfW et.al.
Minutes taken by Manizha Sharifova, IFC Tajikistan SME Survey and Policy Project
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