Ashgabat, 24 March 2020: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Academy of Civil Service of Turkmenistan have developed a digital management master's program as part of the joint project “Support to the Civil Service Academy under the President of Turkmenistan”. Piloting of the master's program took place on March 24, 2020.

The first students of the pilot course are 20 specialists - representatives of ministries and agencies of Turkmenistan such as the Ministry of Finance and Economics, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sport and Youth Policy, State Committee for Statistics, Central Bank, Academy of Sciences, as well as a number of key transport, logistics and communication agencies.

“UNDP is a long-standing partner of the Academy of Civil Service of Turkmenistan. As a result of our cooperation the Academy has adopted its development strategy and established partnerships with similar institutions in the region. This course was developed in conjunction with a group of leading teachers of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus,” said Akmyrat Danatarov, UNDP programme specialist.

The new educational master's program includes 10 disciplines, such as information technology in management, information systems in economics, the basics of information security and information resources, situational analysis and modeling of management decisions, e-government technologies, data mining, public administration in the information society, change management, public finance and banking management, and the digital regulatory framework management.

The courses aim to increase the capacity and raise awareness and knowledge of specialists of ministries and departments in the field of training and decision-making using elements of innovative management and digitalization. Specialists will also learn possibilities of using information technologies in management, with the specifics of information systems in different areas of the economy and will form an idea of ​​the possibility of managing the enterprise’s business processes using information systems. In addition, the new master's program will help students master the use of modern information technologies to improve the efficiency of government bodies and organizations in the context of digital transformation.

“One of the main objectives of the training course is to prepare students for the adaptation and use of information technologies and systems as a tool to support and organize the activities of a modern innovative management, including the formation of the necessary theoretical and methodological base in the field of information technologies and systems, the development of the possibilities and principles of application of information technology and systems to support management,” said Babahan Berdyev, Senior Lecturer of the Academy of Civil Service of Turkmenistan and UNDP national coordinator.

The master's program reflects the main provisions of the Concept for the Development of the Digital Economy in Turkmenistan, aimed at increasing scientific and technical efficiency, as well as economic profitability of research, enhancing international cooperation in this field, and intellectual support for digital transformations in the economy and in the field of public service.