Kazakhstan: Easing Development Operations by Joining E-Signature

Astana, December 21, 2011 – A paperless and a real-time submission of a withdrawal application to the World Bank is available now in Kazakhstan. The Treasury Committee of the Ministry of Finance and the Committee of Roads of the Ministry of Transport and Communications became the first users of e-Signature/e-Disbursement within the Central Asia. The e-Signature allows for an easier, faster and more secure way to access the country portfolio information. In Europe and Central Asia Region, e-Signature/e-Disbursement is used in such countries as Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia. 

“The system will advance the process of applying for money withdrawal and receipt. Previously, the entire procedure has been taking some 1-4 weeks, now a few days only. This will speed up payments to suppliers and improve disbursements, and finally will foster the project implementation,” noted one of the participants of the facility use hand-on training in Astana.

The Client Connection website provides real-time information on financial, procurement, and membership resources in a central location as well as documentation on World Bank policies and procedures on procurement, financial management and disbursements. In addition to providing relevant country news and economic statistics, the website information is presented at the project and portfolio level for each client.  As of the last year, the Client Connection has had over 10,600 users (not including World Bank staff) in over 179 countries.