Online Business Sector Information (RO0054)

2018-2020
Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry for Business Environment, Commerce and
Entrepreneurship (MMACA)
Other actors
involved
State actors
The 9 Regional Agencies for SMEs, Export Investment
and Export Promotion, subordinated to the MMACA
Economic Commercial Promotion Offices
CSOs, private sector,
multilaterals, working
groups
What is the public problem that the
commitment will address?
The MMACA has the task of improving the way and
means of informing the target audience as efficiently
and thoroughly as possible.
Commitment description
What is the commitment?
To improve the methods of promoting and informing
the target audience in relation to the work of the
MMACA.
How will the commitment contribute to
solve the public problem?
- Creating an information platform for MMACA
- Reducing the number of requests for information
on the programs, policies and strategies developed
and implemented by MMACA
- Increasing citizen awareness
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP
values?
Increase transparency of MMACA
Publish well-structured public information
Improve the implementation of Law no. 544/2001 on
free access to information of public interest.
Milestone activity with a verifiable
deliverable
Responsible agency /
partner
Start Date: End Date:
Increase transparency in the
communication process between
applicants and the MMACA by developing
a forum-type platform.
MMACA September
2018
December
2020
Training sessions for the enforcement of MMACA January December
18
Law no. 544/2001 regarding the access to
information of public interest.
2018 2020
Developing information management
guidelines
MMACA September
2018
December
2018
Good Practice Contest at the MMACA to
boost progress in this field with official
recognition (award of excellence diplomas)
at internal ceremonies.
MMACA
December
2018
December
2020
Managing and constantly updating
published information
MMACA September
2018
Permanent
Additional information
Budget (lei) max. 95,000 lei (MMACA budget)
Correlation with other government
programs/strategies
Law no. 544/2001 regarding the access to
information of public interest
Memorandum with the theme Increasing
transparency and standardization of public disclosure
of public information

7. Improve the online information available for the national and international business sector

Commitment Text: "To improve the methods of promoting and informing the target audience in relation to the work of the MMACA."

Milestones:

7. • Increase transparency in the communication process between applicants and the MMACA by developing a forum-type platform.
   • Training sessions for the enforcement of Law no. 544/2001 regarding the access to information of public interest.
   • Developing information management guidelines
   • Good Practice Contest at the MMACA to boost progress in this field with official recognition (award of excellence diplomas) at internal ceremonies.
   • Managing and constantly updating published information

Start Date: September 2018

End Date: December 2020

Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2018-2020 national action plan.

Context and Objectives

The Ministry for the Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship (MMACA) is charged with supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), commerce, entrepreneurship and foreign investment. MMACA is required to disseminate all information relating to these topics. [66] This commitment aims to create an interactive platform to proactively share this information and increase citizen awareness of the activities of MMACA. In addition to access to information, according to an interviewed MMACA representative, the platform’s interactive functionalities will enable citizens to log in, pose questions—e.g., on grants, projects and business opportunities—comment on legal drafts, and then monitor the responses they receive from other users or from the MMACA staff. [67] The commitment therefore also intends to improve citizen participation, though this is not explained in the commitment text.

As several links on the MMACA portal (http://www.imm.gov.ro) do not work (e.g., Ministry reports, Programs and Strategies, Annual report on transparent decision making), the commitment may result in some necessary improvements. Moreover, the forum-type platform may serve to engage the key audience of MMACA more and to improve the communication between MMACA and the public.

However, it is unlikely that the trainings will help improve transparency under law 544/2001, since much of the required information is already published, and the Secretariat General of the Government (SGG) already provides biannual trainings and monitoring sessions for all members of the central public administration. It is unclear what additional training the MMACA staff will receive. While Milestone 4 tries to address the lack of specialized IT staff to maintain its website and the forum-type platform, [68] tasking general public servants with this responsibility and motivating the ones that display the highest online activity [69] may not be sufficient to overcome complex IT challenges. It is also unclear what the competition methodology is, as well as how big the remunerations are. Consequently, this commitment is likely to have a positive, but minor, impact.

Next steps

A higher degree of specificity could improve the implementation of this commitment. For instance, MMACA could detail the number and content of training sessions it will offer to its public servants dedicated to maintaining the platform and to managing public interest information online. Additionally, MMACA could reveal how it plans to quantify excellence among its staff—e.g., how much online activity and what type of online activity will be rewarded, how much, and whether the online activity is sufficient to the scale of the task. Finally, MMACA could report on the amount of public interest information that it opened in the course of implementing this commitment, on the visibility and traction of the platform among MMACA’s key audience, and on the number of interactions between the MMACA staff and citizens that took place on the forum.

[66] HG 23/2017, available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2kGBmsE.

[67] Interview with Cerasela Patrascanu, Ministry of Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship (MMACA), 9 September 2019.

[68] Interview with Cerasela Patrascanu, MMACA, 9 September 2019.

[69] Ibid.

7. Improve online information available for the national and international business sector

Limited

According to the OGP repository, a lack of funds prevented the Ministry for the Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship (MMACA) from developing its “forum-type” platform under the first milestone of this commitment. In 2020, the MMACA was incorporated into the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (MEAT). Consequently, the MEAT staff responsible for completing the platform were given different priorities and the planned Good Practice contest was not organized. [35]

MEAT did not organize any training sessions for its staff on publishing information of public interest. [36] However, the company maintaining the MEAT website developed management guidelines for publishing information on the website. [37]

At the end of the action plan, there were two MEAT websites, imm.gov.ro and economie.gov.ro, which are inter-linked but not in a logical manner. Information relevant for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), commerce, entrepreneurship, and foreign investment is still published on the imm.gov.ro in a billboard manner. The information is updated daily, according to the OGP repository.