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Beirut, Lebanon: 28-29 September 2010

Overview | Outcomes | Documentation | Presentations

A fundamental regulatory policy area in both MENA and OECD countries is administrative simplification. This seminar provided participants with a practical overview on how to plan, implement and organise an administrative simplification and e-government strategy.

Peers from Belgium, Denmark and Tunisia attended the event and presented their country’s experiences on the topic. Each element was explained through a theoretical presentation and illustrated by real examples from MENA and OECD countries.

At the end of the second day a workshop was organised to work in practice on the design and implementation of an administrative simplification and e-government strategy.

The seminar was opened by His Excellency, Mr. Mohammad Fneish, Minister of State for Administrative Reform in Lebanon and His Excellency, Dr. Khaled Kabbani, Persident of the Civil Service Board in Lebanon. The meeting was attended by over 100 high-level officials, representatives from the private sector and several international organisations.

The meeting provided substantive discussions on administrative simplification and e-government strategies and regulatory quality frameworks.

Participants highlighted the continued efforts to design a comprehensive strategy that combines both administrative simplification and e-government to reduce regulatory complexity and ensure better quality public services.

At the workshop participants discussed challenges encountered during the implementation phase and possible solutions to overcome them. Special emphasis was placed on the coordination mechanisms to ensure a smooth implementation and achieve expected results. The importance of using ICT tools was also highlighted when designing administrative simplification strategy.

The Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform as well as all other public institutions participating in the seminar recognised the value of OECD support in the above mentioned fields and expressed their interest in continue working together on:

• A stocktake of existing projects in all ministries and public agencies;
• A review of the existing legal frameworks and mechanisms of enforcement;
• Redefining a combined e-government and administrative simplification strategy, focused on  pilot projects based on one-stop shops in selected ministries;
• A capacity building activities to disseminate findings and recommendations.

• Agenda (pdf - 962kb)

28 September 2010

Session 1. International Practices in Administrative Simplification: The Design and Implementation of Simplification Programmes

• Mrs. Dominique de Vos, Deputy Director General, Administrative Simplification Agency, Prime Minister’s Office, Belgium
• Mrs. Fatiha Charni Brini, Director in charge of Administrative Simplification, Prime Ministry, Tunisia (French - pdf 504kb)
• Ms. Signe Jensen, Senior Advisor, Division for Better Business Regulation, Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, Denmark (English - pdf 395kb)
• Ms .Miriam Allam, Economist, Regulatory Policy Division, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate, OECD (English - pdf 328kb)

Session 2: Creating Regulatory Quality Frameworks: The Characteristics of a Regulatory Quality Initiative

• Mrs. Dominique de Vos, Deputy Director General, Administrative Simplification Agency, Prime Minister’s Office, Belgium (English - pdf 679kb)
• Ms. Signe Jensen, Senior Advisor, Division for Better Business Regulation, Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, Denmark (English - pdf 555kb)
• Mr. Rizkallah Freifer, Member of the State Council, Beirut, Lebanon

Session 3: The Experience of the Private Sector with Government Regulations and the Lebanese Initiatives

• Mr. Josef Konvitz, Head of the Regulatory Policy Division, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate, OECD (English - pdf 270kb)
• Mr. Mazen Hanna, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister, Lebanon (English - pdf 288kb)
• Mr. Andre Amiouni, Senior Policy Analyst, Leader of the Simplification Team at OMSAR (English - pdf 225kb)
• Mr. Antoine Romanos, Head of the Medical Professions Section at the Ministry of Public Health (English - pdf 1,999kb)
• H.E. Mr. Fadi Abboud, Minister of Tourism, previously President of the Industrialists Association, Lebanon (Arabic - pdf 682kb)

29 September 2010

Session 1: Measuring Administrative Burden: Tools and Techniques

• Mrs. Dominique de Vos, Deputy Director General, Administrative Simplification Agency, Prime Minister’s Office, Belgium  (English - pdf 1,558kb)
• Ms. Signe Jensen, Senior Advisor, Division for Better Business Regulation, Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, Denmark (English - pdf 158kb)

Session 2: Integrating ICT tools into the Administrative Simplification Programme

• Mr. Selim Balaa, Advisor to the Minister of Finance - International Trade and Customs at UNDP Lebanon
• Mr. Nasser Israoui, Director of the Technical Cooperation Unit, OMSAR, Lebanon (English - pdf 2,606kb)
  Mr. Alessandro Bellantoni, E-Government Policy Analyst, MENA-OECD Governance Programme, OECD (English - pdf 355kb)
• Mrs. Dominique de Vos, Deputy Director General, Administrative Simplification Agency, Prime Minister’s Office, Belgium