On December 23, CDA Michael Greene joined Prime Minister Djoomart Otorbayev and the leadership of the State Tax Service (STS) to open a Citizen Service Center at Bishkek’s Dordoi Bazaar, the busiest wholesale market in Central Asia. The newly-refurbished facility will help improve customer service for more than 7,000 businesses and traders working at the market.
USAID, through the Good Governance and Public Administration Support (GGPAS) program, supported the transformation of a set of metal shipping containers into a fully-operation Service Centers at Dordoi and in southern Kyrgyzstan at the Aravan Tax Office, which delivers services to nearly 25,000 customers in Osh province. The Citizen Service Centers are based on the “one-stop shop” model, which brings the STS, Social Fund, National Statistics Committee, and a servicing bank together in a single location where entrepreneurs can more easily register businesses and pay taxes.
Through GGPAS, USAID also supports the STS’s active, reform-oriented leadership to undertake a performance gap analysis of their organization, with the goal to develop a comprehensive human resources management strategy. Following the official ceremony, PM Otorbayev took questions from citizens and remarked that Kyrgyzstan’s membership into the Customs Union will open markets and opportunities to Dordoi’s entrepreneurs.
