Development administration

Project activities, which will be supervised by MIPPE, will be in the areas of organization, systems and procedures, and human resource development. Units to be upgraded include, inter alia, the National Directorates of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (DICOMEX, DICOIN) and of Natural Endowment, and the General Directorate of Small Business (DGPE) at MICI; and the National Directorate of Employment (DNE) and the National Service of Professional Formation (SENAFORP) at MITRAB. On the organizational level, strategy and policymaking of SENAFORP and DNE at MITRAB and three National Directorates at MICI will be enhanced through workshops, seminars, and studies; and the organizational structure of MITRAB and MICI will be strengthened through the provision of technical assistance, organizational handbooks, and participatory training mechanisms. New or improved systems and procedures to be developed include: registration, skills verification, classification, job-placement processes, and administrative handbooks at DNE; processes for formal planning/control/information dissemination and for major purchasing, general services, and administration at SENAFORP; a legal framework for internal trade, a new system of rules and procedures, and user-oriented handbooks for regulating commercial and industrial licenses, industrial property, and microfilm use at DICOIN; an inter-institutional system of requirements for importing and exporting tradable goods, as well as a programming, control, and evaluation system for DICOMEX; mechanisms for programming, purchasing, receiving, registering, inventory controlling, and billing and collecting at HACIENDA (workshops on purchasing common goods will also be provided); and procedures to coordinate personnel-management of public sector Personnel Offices in MIPPE"s Department of Human Resources and to enable the Department to assist Personnel Offices in their work, along with coordination mechanisms and the information, research, programming, and evaluation systems of MIPPE"s Department of Training. To perpetuate project efforts, targeted agencies will receive training in four areas. Ten persons will receive U.S. post-graduate training in organization, systems and procedures, natural resource management, personnel planning, and research methodology. Forty executives will attend short modules at Panama"s Continuing Education Program in Administrative Management. Operational training will include two 6-day workshops in consumer education and commercial legislation at MICI; 1-week modules in basic administrative techniques for small businesses for 40 DGPE personnel and 30 mid-level managers of organizations that work with small businesses; and project intervention-related training at MIPPE, MITRAB, and HACIENDA. Trips by government executives to counterparts in other countries will also be funded.