CAIRO – 15 August 2022: Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Egypt Office, in partnership with Korea Institute for Development Strategy (KDS), has conducted an online country training program for the Ministry of Finance entitled “Capacity Development of Public Financial Management for the Ministry of Finance Leaders” from August 1st to the 11th. This program consists of 3-year consecutive capacity-building programs, starting this year and continuing up to 2024.
On the 10th of August, KOICA Egypt Office and Ministry of Finance hosted a closing ceremony for the first batch of trainees. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Ahmed Ashraf Kouchouk, Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies and Institutional Reform, Mr. Choi Byoung Sun, Minister Plenipotentiary from the Embassy of Republic of Korea, Mrs. Kim Jinyoung, KOICA Egypt Office Country Director, Ms. Doaa Hamdy Mounir, Head of International Affairs Department and various other heads of departments.
The ceremony started with a moment of silence, commemorating the victims of the recent heavy flood happened in Seoul, capital of South Korea, as requested by Dr. Ahmed Kouchouk.
During the ceremony, Dr. Ahmed Kouchouk congratulated “This capacity building program is significant in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ministry of Finance’s employees, as extracting lessons from South Korea’s success story is beneficial for any country in its path towards development.” He added “The action plans developed by the trainees during the training period will get great attention from the Ministry. In this regard, a series of meetings will be conducted with the trainees to determine the ones that match the Ministry’s current strategy and the Ministry will follow up with the implementation.”
Mr. Choi Byoung Sun stated, “This training comes in light of the Korean Government's designation of Egypt as a priority development partner during the period from 2021 to 2025.” He added, ”This is the start of further cooperation to enhance and expand the scopes of the partnership between the two governments.”
“I was very pleased listening to all the action plans presented by the attendees” stated Mrs. Kim, the newly appointed Country Director of KOICA Egypt Office, “especially because PFM and public procurement are two things that cannot be separated, we hope this training program can synergize with a joint project with the ministry for enhancing e-procurement system.”
Ms. Doaa Hamdy, Head of International Cooperation from the Ministry of Finance, also commented, “The trainees were very satisfied with the outcomes of the program. We hope to continue this friendly cooperation for the future as well.”
Twenty mid-level officials attended the training, which was held in the Ministry. This training was designed to 1) seek a sustainable plan to implement Public Financial Management reforms by determining the current state of improvement in the organization and system, 2) explore effective means of operation of financial management and improving human resources management, 3) improve the professional competence, leadership and accountability of mid-level officials for the integrated management of PFM reform.
The training included workshops and lectures which covered Korea’s financial management systems and modernization of the taxation and customs system, in addition to lectures discussing topics such as innovation in the government procurement system and financial audit. The participants also developed action plans for the issues identified in the country report by incorporating knowledge and experiences from the training. Trainees expressed their gratitude to the program and fulfillment with achievement throughout the intensive courses, learning from the invaluable experiences that South Korea went through.
Furthermore, KOICA and the Ministry of Finance are planning on embarking on a joint project for enhancing the e-procurement system in Egypt. This project aims to build an electronic procurement system that can increase the efficiency and transparency of the public procurement process. KOICA and the Ministry will also re-engineer the business process to ensure that it is aligned with the institutional framework, and develop a roadmap for the delivery and implementation of the new system across the public sector.
Korean Government will continue to support Egyptian government’s efforts to strengthen public finance management through capacity-building programs and technical cooperation project.
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