Erke Turdumambetova, Director of the Training Center at the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic A progressive approach to the needs of course trainees and a flexible pricing policy of our center allow you to receive educational services at a high level, taking into account time and cost savings. The Training Center of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic (hereinafter referred to as the Training Center) consists of highly qualified specialists with many years of practical experience in the field of additional professional education, thanks to which we have earned the trust of many of our clients. We are distinguished by a modern approach to the learning process, focus on the most relevant, modern and demanded technologies, thorough comprehensive study of educational programs for the most effective mastering of the material. New technologies not only change the way products and services are produced, but also create new opportunities for the implementation of civil rights, self-realization of the individual, gaining knowledge, educating a new generation and spending leisure time. For over 40 years, the Training Center has been operating in three main areas: 1. advanced training courses for the entire system of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic, which is about 1000 employees from: the central office, 55 territorial departments and four subordinate organizations for which all training is carried out free of charge; 2. "open" courses, according to the Price List of tariffs for paid educational services conducted by the Training Center (for which everyone can sign up); 3. 16 online courses (in the state and official languages) presented by the center (free of charge) on the following topics: - Formation and execution of local budgets; - Program budgeting; - Incentive grants; - Single treasury account; - Public procurement management; - Course on public procurement for suppliers; - Course on working with the Public Procurement Portal; - Conducting public hearings on draft local budgets; - Formation of the civil budget for local budgets and many others. Over the past 8 years, more than 40 thousand students have studied at the Training Center, we rightly consider this a symbol of recognition of our center (2012 - 1415 people; 2013 - 1693; 2014 - 2696; 2015 - 9180; 2016 - 6715, 2017 - 6567, 2018 - 6030, 2019 - 5905). For comparison, in 2010 and 2011 the number of course participants was only: 470 and 477 people. Global trends (especially during a pandemic) indicate that the introduction of digitalization is an inevitable, natural process that is a requirement of the time. At the Training Center since 2016. there is a website - Educational portal (https://ucmfkr.okmot.kg), created with the aim of introducing distance learning technologies (hereinafter - DOT) into the educational process. The educational portal is an information and educational system developed on the basis of AVN. This software product is built in accordance with the standards of information training systems. We consider it necessary to list some of those positive aspects that have led to an increase in the availability and popularity of the courses of the Training Center: - Entry into the Unified Register (list) of public services provided by executive authorities, their structural divisions and subordinate institutions "(April 9, 2013 No. 179); - Obtaining two licenses from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic (in the field of additional education, as well as in the form of training - using DOT); - Opening of two branches of the Training Center of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic in the cities: Jalal-Abad (2013) and Osh (2016); - Innovative equipment, equipped with audiovisual means and other teaching tools, as a result of the modernization of the infrastructure and material base of the Training Center (with the support of the project "Development of capacity in public finance management" MDTF); - Practitioners with extensive practical experience and who are the developers of the regulatory framework in the field of economics and finance, public procurement, and many others are involved in lecturing and carrying out practical work. (trainer from the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Central Treasury of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Department of Public Procurement under the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic, State Enterprise "Info-system" and many others); - Annual holding of international events and many others. I would like to dwell in more detail on one of the activities of the Training Center - conducting training courses on public procurement. The Training Center, in accordance with its Regulations, since 2010. conducts courses for training, retraining and advanced training of personnel of the system of public procurement of goods, works and services with the issuance of confirming certificates of the established form of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic.Stationary (one-day, two-day specialized; five-day basic; nine-day advanced) and distance learning (online) courses on public procurement procedures are conducted. June 26 this year The Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On Amendments to the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic‹ “On Public Procurements” came into force. In aggregate with changes from January 11, 2019. in the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On public procurement”, there have been significant changes in terms of procurement procedures. In this regard, all training programs and materials were brought into line in accordance with the new edition of the Law. In particular, specialized courses were developed (Amendments to the Law "On Public Procurement"; "Rules for Participation and Submission of Competitive Bids in Electronic Public Procurement") in the amount of 8 academic hours. Also, for the first, second, third days of training within the Basic Course, the content of the Advanced Course and the content of existing online courses (presentations, modules, case studies, test questions), edits were made. To strengthen the training system of the Training Center, effective and currently popular tools - webinars - have also been introduced into the educational process. One of the important directions in the development of educational activities of the Training Center is the use of DOT, online courses have gained popularity and remain especially valuable for listeners in remote regions and with a tight work schedule who want to improve their skills. So since 2016. The training center launched online public procurement courses to provide procurement professionals and the business community with a wealth of knowledge ranging from legal requirements to best practices in public procurement. The course covers the procurement planning and bidding procedures required by the national public procurement process, and also contains video tutorials on “How to use the electronic public procurement portal”. The online version of the course is available to everyone on the Learning Center website. Taking into account the fact that the Internet connection is weak in remote villages, the training course was distributed on CDs among employees of territorial departments of the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic and municipalities so that employees of local state and municipal bodies could have "anytime, anywhere" access to this course. The pandemic has made it clear to us that procurement and timely deliveries are critical to providing the public with medicines and personal protective equipment. July 7, 2020 The training center, together with the Higher School of Economics National Research University (Perm, Russia), Crown Agents Ltd (Great Britain), held an international online seminar for 98 participants from different countries on the topic: “Procurement and supply chain management in a pandemic COVID-19 ", the purpose of which is to discuss the problems associated with the organization of operational procurement and supply chains, as well as ways to solve them during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the seminar, Brian Richmond, Director of Crown Agents and Tatiana Korotchenko, Head of the Representative Office in Ukraine shared their experience and discussed the problems faced by the countries, how to purchase the right quantity, the right quality and the required technical specifications. I would like to note that the staff of the Training Center during the Emergency Situation were able to urgently adapt many courses to the online mode and conducted them on a regular basis using DOT. Students of the course, using convenient electronic tools, in a convenient place for them, mastered new technologies and raised their level of competence. Topical online lectures were supplemented with various practical tasks and examples to connect to which through a computer or telephone, the listeners only needed access to the Internet. In order to increase the potential in the field of public procurement, as well as to provide high-quality additional education, the Training Center is always ready to cooperate with higher educational institutions not only in Kyrgyzstan, but also in the countries of near and far abroad. In the short term, the training center plans, together with the management of Info-system SE, to conduct activities within the framework of the Project for the development of a universal platform for distance learning "Digital Skills", as well as conduct training for external users of the information system registered as VAT payers on the topic: Electronic invoice ”, introduced by the State Tax Service under the GPC within the framework of the Project on the fiscalization of tax procedures.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank on November 10, 2007, in close cooperation with a group of specialists established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, assessed the public procurement system. The OECD methodology was based on four elements that assessed: (a) legal and regulatory framework; (b) institutional framework and good governance; (c) procurement operations and market practices; (d) reliability and transparency of the public procurement system. Figure 1 shows the scoring results for the four elements of the OECD. The highest composite score (2.1) was given to the legal and regulatory element (Element I). In other words, according to the assessment based on the baseline indicator (BI), in general, laws and regulations in the Kyrgyz Republic meet acceptable international standards. Conversely, the scores for the remaining three elements indicate serious deficiencies. However, in subsequent periods, clear and relevant results of the assessment did not serve as the basis for an action plan for the development of the public procurement system. The Public Procurement Agency was reorganized into the Department of Public Procurement Methodology (DPPM) and subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. The National Training Center for Procurement (NTCP), which achieved stable and good results, was privatized, and its functions were later restored with great difficulty in the Training Center of the Ministry of Finance. In February 2012, a regular country procurement review (CPR) was carried out and a report on the results of the review was drawn up by a joint mission of the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The most important recommendations for the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to improve the efficiency of the public procurement system and to bring it in line with international best practices are proposed: 1. The legal framework for procurement should be reviewed and changed; 2. A strategy for improving the public procurement system for the next few years should be developed; 3. Annual reports on public procurement should be prepared and published through the procurement website; 4. The Department of public procurement Training Center should conduct frequent procurement training workshops for government officials involved in procurement activities and auditing of procurement transactions. The above and other important recommendations are mainly implemented by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic: 1. The authorized state body, the Department of Public Procurement, has been reinstated with broader regulatory and coordinating powers. 2. With the support of the World Bank, amendments were made and the Law on Public Procurement was adopted in 2015. 3. An electronic public procurement portal has been developed and is operating. 4. Interaction with suppliers / contractors and civil / expert community has improved. 5. The mechanism for handling complaints and claims has been active. Following this assessment, all stakeholders were constantly and efficiently working again on Element I - a legislative and regulatory framework that was at a high international level 2.1 points out of 3, instead of working to improve the other three Elements. I can only assume that the incompetence of knowledge or the group interests of the participants in the public procurement process led them to the conclusion that the main obstacle “supposedly for the development of public procurement” was the Law “On Public Procurement”. As a result, the Law, passed in 1997, amended in 2004 and well received by the OECD, has undergone so many changes that it has become voluminous, unreadable, complex, controversial and incomprehensible. Especially for the direct users of the Law - procurement specialists, it has become unbearable and difficult to apply such a Law in practice. In the Law, you can find many errors not only of a semantic nature, but also grammatical, contradictory points and articles. The well-known principle of economics - the effect of reverse return (proverbs proving this principle: many cooks spoil soup, seven nannies have a child without eyes, when there are many shepherds, sheep die) worked, it was impossible to endlessly improve the Law, and stop still in 2008. Several examples can be given, reducing the basis for the application of the law: threshold amounts, unjustified exemption from the regulation of the Law - Article 2, paragraph 3.4.5, Article 21, paragraph 4.5., strengthening punitive measures for business-"black list", bureaucratization of complaints, the excessive complication of procedures by electronic procurement as a method, protectionism. In my opinion, further it is necessary to suspend any interference with the existing legislative and regulatory framework under far-fetched reasons and conduct a complete revision (reengineering). Optimize, synchronize, harmonize and unify all regulations immediately, by a competent consulting company with the participation of all stakeholders. As can be seen from the results of the 2007 assessment, for the baseline indicator “Institutional framework and governance of the public procurement system” (Element II), the average score was 1.0 on a three-point scale. Such an assessment meant the need to significantly strengthen the institutional framework - personnel and improve the efficiency of the management of the public procurement system. However, subsequently, it was not possible to ensure significant progress on this indicator, and the 2012 assessment indicated the following shortcomings and recommendations: 1. The level of procurement competence among government officials is low and there is no sustainable procurement capacity building strategy. 2. The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic needs to strengthen and support the training center of the Ministry of Finance and other qualified educational institutions, universities as one of the sustainable mechanisms for strengthening procurement capacity. 3. The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic needs to assess the needs for capacity development and, based on the results obtained, prepare and implement a national strategy for the development of procurement capacity, taking into account all available resources - such as existing mechanisms for training civil servants, universities, colleges, institutes, associations. The successful implementation of this task was the main goal of the education strategy in the public procurement system of the Kyrgyz Republic. On my personal initiative, in order to achieve this goal in 2009, I established the Department of Logistics at the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov to study bachelors, masters and doctoral students in public procurement. Universities should become a center for knowledge, research and excellence for procurement professionals. The authorized public procurement body, procuring entities, suppliers and contractors, business and civil society involved in public procurement processes should work closely and interact with Universities. Bachelors and masters have the knowledge and skills to manage the complete procurement process - planning, specification development, supplier market analysis, customer requirements, transportation delivery design, administrate of contract, conduct research on efficiency issues in public procurement. We have built close relationships with procuring entities, suppliers, contractors, the expert community and civil society. The World Bank Group, recognizing the importance of institutional strengthening of the public procurement system of the Kyrgyz Republic, on May 13, 2020 launched the project "Establishment of public procurement and logistics observatory in the Kyrgyz Republic" at the Department of Logistics of the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov. The public procurement and logistics observatory (PPLO) is a platform for observing procurement processes and promoting best practices, initiating dialogue between relevant stakeholders. PPLO will carry out qualitative and quantitative analysis of procurement processes in the Kyrgyz Republic, and share them with government officials and citizens through this portal, blogs, tweets, newsletters, seminars and trainings. It will also oversee procurement processes, disseminate innovative forms of public procurement, and advocate for best procurement practices in the Kyrgyz Republic. All this stimulates cost savings and improved procurement efficiency.

T. M. Shabdanaliev, Chairman, Association of carriers and logistics of the Kyrgyz Republic. On behalf of the heads of transport and logistics enterprises, I would like to express my appreciation to the World Bank group, the government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov for supporting and implementing the project "Establishment of the National Public Procurement and Logistics Observatory". The public procurement system in our country has passed the stage of formation and is developing in accordance with the current trends. There are a lot of problems and drawbacks in this area, and the established center will help to solve the main problem of the public procurement system – to graduate competent specialists in the management of procurement of goods, works and services. As a Chairman of the Public Supervisory Board under the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic until 2015, my colleagues and I have raised an issue about tender’s quality for several times. We have studied the tender’s procedure, transparency of results, and introduction of a protest mechanism. However, after 2015, the policy towards the activities of the Public Supervisory Board has changed and the results of their work have become less effective. Therefore, this center could establish cooperation with the Supervisory Boards and provide them with information, analytical opinions and research results to strengthen civil society control in the field of procurement. In autumn, 2017, I wanted to provide practical support to my brother from Kochkor village, Naryn region and drew up documents to participate in the procurement of meat for kindergartens and schools in Bishkek. We applied all the necessary documents and provided additional information about the advantages of our shop – industrial slaughter of animals in compliance with technology and temperature conditions, veterinary standards, sanitation and hygiene of employees. The consignment of meat was accompanied by a certificate of quality confirmation, a veterinary certificate with a driver's health record and a permit to transport meat by car. Also, we were providing an invoice with VAT to the buyer, by that we were promoting to pay taxes by the buyer and government. The tender Commission, after opening the envelopes and familiarizing the participants, read out the Protocol, where they selected the supplier who offered the lowest price. The Commission did not consider other delivery criteria. They did not discuss the availability of a production base, fattened livestock for systematic slaughter and meat supply, or the technologies used for slaughtering and butchering. For this purpose, our company invited a slaughterer technologist from the USA, who trained the USA and France method to our 12 employees under the "farmer - to-farmer" program. At the selection Committee meeting, there was no word about the documents confirming the quality, timing, delivery conditions and suitability of meat for cooking for children in kindergartens and schools. Suppliers were resellers - speculators who did not have their own shop and livestock for slaughter. After the tender, my brother and I talked to the Chairman of the Commission, he admitted that the main criterion for selecting suppliers was the price. We assumed that when conducting tenders, effective selection criteria are not taken into account, and there are corruption risks on the part of purchasing organizations. In addition, the contemporary history of Kyrgyzstan shows that there are a lot of dishonest officials in higher bodies of state authority who pass regulations with corrupt conditions to use it for personal gain in the future.

Péter Tamás1*, Béla Illés2, Tamás Bányai3, Ágota Bányainé Tóth4, Umetaliev Akylbek5, Róbert Skapinyecz6 1,2,3,4,6 Institute of Logistics, University of Miskolc, Hungary 5 Department of Logistics, Kyrgyz-German Technical Institute, Kyrgyz State Technical University named I. Razzakov, Kyrgyzstan Аbstract There are a number of untapped opportunities for cross-border logistics cooperation, one of which is the operation of virtual logistics centers. The Institute of Logistics of the University of Miskolc researched the possibilities of establishing and operating Virtual Logistics Centers in many fields (e.g. automotive industry, maintenance systems, etc.). The paper describes a proposed concept for the operation of virtual logistics centers for cross-border cooperation, as well as explores the possible benefits of the application. The proposed concept can provide a good basis for the development of a virtual logistics center in the border regions of Miskolc (Hungary) - Košice (Slovakia), and also in the border regions of Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) - Almaty (Kazakhstan). Keywords: cross-border cooperation, logistics service, virtual logistics center

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic ensured the establishment of a public procurement system, and further is making efforts to integrate into global supply chains. Mitigating or overcoming this challenge requires a significant enhance the capacity building of the public procurement system. Existing, various short-term workshops and training courses cannot solve this problem. Therefore, it is necessary to launch educational programs at universities for bachelor, master and doctorate in public procurement. Universities should become the dissemination center of science, research and good practice for procurement professionals. The authorized public procurement agency, procuring entities, suppliers and contractors, business community and civil society involved in public procurement processes should closely cooperate and interact with universities. Established Public Procurement and Logistics Observatory at the Kyrgyz State Technical University has competent lecturers, teachers and researchers, also bachelors and masters for professional activities in public procurement and World Bank projects. Bachelors and masters have knowledge and skills in managing the complete procurement process - planning, specification development, supplier market analysis, customer requirements, transportation and delivery design, contract administration, procurement benchmarking, conduct research of problems on the effectiveness of public procurement. We have created close relations with procuring entities, suppliers, contractors, the expert community and civil society. Another feature of our integrated approach to supply chain management is the adoption of some form of synchronization of the customer’s and supplier’s processes (Donald Waters).

Akylbek Umetaliev published an article on the problem of production logistics JPE (2020) Vol.23 (1) Original Scientific Paper Tóth, L., Akylbek, U., Cservenák, Á., Bányai, T., Illés, B., Tamás, P. PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS USING INDUSTRY 4.0 TECHNOLOGIES Received: 26 March 2020 / Accepted: 11 June 2020 Abstract: Industry 4.0 technologies can improve not only the performance of manufacturing and assembly processes, but also the efficiency of related logistic operations can be increased. Within the frame of this article we show a system for identifying product mixing problems using Industry 4.0 technologies. The identification of loading unit building equipments and products is based on RFID tags. We used Excel format database file to hold the binding matrix of the products. We have developed a software that controls our industrial IF30 RFID reader. Our software performs a product mix detection test as well. Key words: RFID, product identification, product mixing problems, Industry 4.0 Availability: http://www.jpe.ftn.uns.ac.rs/published20_no1.html Article is attached.