Bilateral Official Development Assistance by the Republic of Slovenia, Implemented by the CMSR

The CMSR offers official development assistance (ODA) to development countries on the basis of public authorisation for the implementation of a part of the technical and operational portion of the Slovenian international development cooperation.
The CMSR has 30 years of experience in implementing international development assistance and has a long-established trademark, in the former Yugoslav republics especially but also in other developing countries; it meets the legal criteria and is qualified for implementing the technical and operational parts of international development cooperation.

The CMSR is qualified for implementing all three forms of providing international development assistance:

A) An already existing programme of subsidising infrastructure projects in ODA recipient countries, financed by the Ministry of Finance. The activities of the CMSR and the SID - Slovene Export and Development Bank - represent the necessary system of services that enable Slovenia to assist developing countries in the realisation of development projects and to directly contribute to the progress of the recipient country. In so doing, it also supports the breakthrough of the Slovenian economy into those markets. The CMSR co-finances development projects through donation or interest rate subsidies. The CMSR grants official development assistance on the basis of a Proposal for Donation addressed to the CMSR by the recipient (a public entity in the ODA recipient country). The proposal is prepared according to the Guidelines for Drafting the Proposal for Donation of the Republic of Slovenia for Official Development Assistance Investment Projects.

B) The CMSR also implements technical development cooperation. If a project is mostly financed by the recipient country, the CMSR ensures that the project is implemented by the provider with the highest standards in their quality of service. The provider is selected according to the recipient country's legislation on selection procedure. If the project is financed mostly by the Republic of Slovenia, the CMSR will select the provider according to Slovene legislation.

C) Technical assistance in the form of financing non-government organisations and institutions or individuals implementing ODA is another important element of development cooperation. The activity of non-government organisations is complementary to infrastructural projects and technical assistance. Projects will be identified together with the recipient country and its priorities. The CMSR will select providers according to Slovene legislation.

In accordance with its extensive experience of operating within international development cooperation, the CMSR prepares expert and professional project reports, annual reports and projects evaluations. The CMSR receives the information needed for the technical and economic feasibility study in the project documentation. On the basis of this received information, the CMSR, either itself or assisted by external partners, implements all the necessary feasibility analyses that are a prerequisite for the approval of a project.

Through a donation agreement, the CMSR binds the recipient of the funds-investor to a semi-annual and final report on the project's progress, thus granting insight into the full documentation. The contract enables the CMSR to engage its experts to review the state of the project implementation using field visits where appropriate. On the basis of information selected, CMSR experts prepare implementation reports as well as a final report after the project's termination. The reports are prepared on the basis of the coordinated OECD standards adapted to the specific conditions in Slovenia.

According to the identified requirements of the individual ministries, the CMSR adapts the manner of implementation and uses appropriate means of financing the ODA. For this reason, it represents the central Slovene institution that will consolidate and merge with the bilateral development assistance offered by the Republic of Slovenia without interfering with budget planning or the competences of the individual ministries. By concluding various contracts on implementing bilateral official development assistance, the Slovenian system for rendering assistance will remain flexible and specifically diverse professionally; it will remain bound by the professional selection of the line ministries. At the same time, the integration of funds will remain guaranteed. The transparency and the single address that the Slovene economy and line ministries will turn to when identifying the cooperation requirements in their bilateral relations will also remain guaranteed.

The implementation of the international development cooperation of the CMSR is based on the International Development Cooperation of the Republic of Slovenia Act, which introduces the coordinated standards and rules of the OECD and EU into the Slovene legal system. An additional legal base for the implementation of ODA is represented by the Resolution on International Development Cooperation of the Republic of Slovenia. In order to formalise the procedures for implementing official development assistance, the CMSR's Council had adopted The CMSR Manual for Implementing the ODA.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the SID - Slovene Export and Development Bank Inc - Ljubljana, each posses half of the management rights in the CMSR. By interlinking the CMSR and the SID Group, the CMSR remains under the appropriate supervision of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia regarding its founding ratio. The synergistic effects thus created enable the bilateral development assistance of the Republic of Slovenia, which is technically and operationally implemented by the CMSR, supported by the Slovene Development Bank through its financial instruments.