Institutional Modernization to Improve the Business Environment, (Package T1)

Project Details

Detailed Narrative Description of the Project:

The Government of Armenia is pursuing an ambitious plan towards becoming a center of excellence in governance generally, and in improving the business environment and reducing the cost of doing business in particular. An action plan to this effect has been issued by the Prime Minister. A major segment of this reform deals with increasing efficiency and simplifying the procedures in the State Registry Agency (SRA) through two initiatives: (i) full automation, so that the current system of manual registration is computerized; and (ii) establishing a one-window operation to facilitate business start-up. In addition to the time spent in the SRA and organizing facilities such as utility connections, businesses apply for getting titles cleared from the Patents Offices and separately file to get tax numbers from the State Tax Service. The action plan envisages setting up 10 "business facilitation centers" to handle all the tasks under one roof in coordination with the relevant agencies. It needs to be assessed if they would need to be new entities, upgraded regional offices of the SRA, or outsourced operations. The Ministry of Justice and the SRA have prepared a program for simplification of the functions and processes of the SRA. The proposed TA is in response to the government's request for support to establish an online business registry as part of this program.  The objective is to assist the State Registry Agency (SRA) in providing businesses with a hassle free registration process through the computerization of its business registration.

Detailed Description of Actual Services Provided by AGMES Consultants:

(i) Review the mandate of SRA, its operational arrangements vis-à-vis- its linkages with the relevant government agencies. (ii) Prepare an IT vision and strategy spreading over 5 years to serve as a roadmap for SRA in application of information technology aligned with its organizational objectives. The IT Strategy should include, but not limited to the following: a. Definition of the main standards, or the agreed set of hardware and software components that the SRA will use. These should include the operating systems, hardware types and underlying software such as database management systems. b. Propose a network infrastructure, both for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANS) use to connect offices in different locations c. A high level work plan with implementation timelines for a series of projects to implement the required changes in IT provision for the SRA. d. Budget IT Expenditures and Resource requirements based on the needs identified so that capital expenditure and subsequently operational costs or maintenance are catered for (iii) Conduct a detailed review and analysis of the current SRA processes (iv) Recommend improvements that can be made via induction of various computer-based technologies (v) Prepare a report summarizing the IT vision and strategy for the SRA, analyzing its business processes and recommend improvements, comparing various IT options, and recommending the best option (vi) Compare various options and decide the IT approach and options; decide whether customer-made or off-the shelf solution is required and specific requirements (vii) Build an RFP or RFQ for development of an online business registration to be sent to vendors for their submission (viii) Evaluate the bids received and recommend the most responsive, lowest bidder, based on the some key points.

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