Japan Approves Continued Funding for IMF Technical Assistance to South Eastern Europe

Posted by Rocio Sarmiento[1]

JSA
Since 2009, the Fiscal AffairsDepartment (FAD) of the IMF has been providing considerable technicalassistance (TA) to South East European (SEE) countries through a Regional Programthat is sponsored by the Japanese Government, and is implemented in closecooperation with the Center for Excellence in Finance (CEF), based in Ljubljana,Slovenia. The overarching objective of the Program is to strengthen fiscalmanagement capacity to ensure that all SEE countries—EU member and non-EUmember countries alike—have the necessary capacity to design and implementmeasures to support fiscal consolidation and long-term fiscal sustainability.

The fiscal consolidation efforts ofSEE governments have been supported by strengthening fiscal controls, improvingthe allocation of budgetary resources and more cost-effective service delivery,while efforts to protect revenue through more efficient revenue administration havefocused on facilitating reform efforts that over time should bring the region’s taxadministrations on par with modern European counterparts, and achieveconsistency in the application of tax administration practices throughout theregion.

Whilethe current economic crisis that is affecting the region has brought to theopen new weaknesses in specific areas of fiscal management, sustainedreform efforts over the last decade have already led to important successes:

The regional approach to technical assistancehas been made possible through a very close collaboration between FAD and the CEFin terms of creating synergies between FAD technical assistance and CEFtraining activities, thus leveraging the impact of both capacity development activitiesthroughout the SEE region.

Thecontinued support of the Japanese Government has allowed FAD to renew its commitment to supporting reforms infiscal management throughout the SEE and continue its close collaboration withthe CEF to the benefit of countries in the region.


[1]TechnicalAssistance Officer for the Resource Management Division, working closely withFAD’s technical assistance divisions in preparing the department’s TA,monitoring delivery and providing management information.

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