The Support to Investment Process for National Development (SIPND) Project, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in co-operation with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, aims to raise the efficiency of the national investment policy through strengthening institutional capacities of the national investment institutions as well as elaboration of policy recommendations to the government based on international experience and best practices.

Improvement of the quality of elaboration and evaluation of investment projects is among the key objectives of the Project. In this regard, the Project with the help of experts form FRDU identified Comfar III Expert by UNIDO and Project Expert 7 Pro by Expert Systems as most widely used in the region and considered most reliable among the available software tools. During several months of 2006 FRDU experts conducted testing of the both software tools with the purpose of identifying the most suitable to the specifics of the Uzbek investment institutions.

The experts of the FRDU acquainted the participants of the event with results of testing including advantages and disadvantages of each software tool, technical and methodological issues encountered during the testing. The findings of the experts of the FRDU sparkled a lively discussion among the participants of the event who represent all major investment institutions of involved in elaboration and evaluation of large investment projects. The event was also attended by a consultant of Expert Systems Company, the developer of Project Expert 7 Pro software who provided detail information on the capabilities of the software program, and answered the questions of the experts.

Among attendants of the event were representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers, FRDU, Ministry of Finance, Uztyajneftegazhimproekt institute at the Ministry of Economy, Gosarchitektstroy, Uzkimyosanoat, Uzbekneftegaz, and a number of banks.