Bangkok Conference

ASIA-PACIFIC GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC MANAGEMENT NETWORK

BANGKOK CONFERENCE
July 7-9, 2008

Chulalongkorn University

The Many Faces of Public Management Reform in Asia-Pacific: Moving Ahead Amidst Challenges and Opportunities in Emerging Markets

The theme of this conference will be understanding the diverse approaches to public management reform in Asian countries. During the past decade, globalization and democratization have been the major forces that helped transform the structures, functions, and processes of Asian public sectors. Nevertheless, these transformation efforts of Asian countries vary considerably depending on local context, and have met with different degrees of success. Some countries experienced smooth transformations. For others, the reform process has been more volatile. Across the range of cases, public administrators themselves are being transformed in terms of skills and talents, values, and
responsiveness to stakeholder demands.

Within this broad theme, there will be three specific topics:

1. COMBATING CORRUPTION. The effort to combat corruption has moved to the center of the debate about good governance, economic growth and poverty reduction in the region. Among the reasons are increased temptations from large flows of foreign investment and aid, greater scrutiny from aid donors, and concerns related to the 1997 East Asian financial crisis. Citizens in the region have served notice that they are no longer willing to tolerate abuses of the public trust for private gain. The liberalization of the press has enabled journalists to write more freely about official indiscretions. Improvements in education and increased information flow between countries have made their public more aware of anticorruption efforts in other countries and less willing to tolerate systematic abuses at home. The rise of new global citizen sector organizations dedicated to fighting corruption has helped to bring and keep the issue in the spotlight.

2. MANAGING PERFORMANCE. Many countries in the region have chosen to follow patterns that have emerged in developed countries over the last several decades in establishing results and performance-oriented monitoring frameworks that measure and report on progress against strategic plans, budgets and sector strategies. This results orientation builds on participatory approaches to strengthen and take advantage of citizen and other stakeholder perspectives on how to improve public services. Under a results-oriented approach initiatives are taken to track a manageable set of indicators, and to provide accurate, timely and transparent information on which to base comprehensive reports to all stakeholders.

3. DECENTRALIZATION. Some regional governments are moving away from central controls, and assigning greater independence of action to lower levels of authority. Deconcentration involves central agencies assigning certain functions and responsibilities to subordinate government or branch offices. Delegation takes place when authority for defined tasks is transferred from one public agency to another agency or service provider that is accountable to the former, but not wholly controlled by it. Devolution takes place when authority for defined tasks is transferred from a public agency to autonomous, subordinate-level units that may be holding corporate status, granted, for example, under legislation. Fiscal decentralization is one form of such practices: granting taxing and spending powers to local or regional governments. This and other forms can lead to a broadening of institutions producing and providing needed goods and services to the public at more efficient cost, wherever they are located and whether they are public, quasi-public or private. Indeed, decentralization often manifests itself in a plurality of agencies, public and private, operating at different scales of jurisdiction providing overlapping services.

With just nine invited speakers, we hope that the major part of each session will involve in-depth discussion in which all attendees are invited to participate. Papers will be circulated in advance to all registered participants. Two discussants will be invited to present observations on each paper. The conference will build on deliberations at other international events such as the 21st General Assembly and Conference of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration in Teheran in November, the December workshop of the Network of Asia-Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance in Manila, and the Seventh Asian Forum for Public Management in Tokyo in January.

THE VENUE OF THE MEETING:

Pathumwan Princess Hotel
444 Phayathai Road, Wangmai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand.
Tel: +66 (0) 2216-3700, Fax: +66 (0) 2216-3730
E-mail: ppb@dusit.com, rsvnppb@dusit.com

PAPERS TO BE PRESENTED
27 abstracts were submitted in response to the call. Nine papers have been selected, and authors are asked to submit completed papers by 23 June, 2008 to cwescott@post.harvard.edu.

REGISTRATION AND ACCOMMODATION
We estimate that the registration fee will be US$ 150, covering the conference and all meals. Registered participants will also be offered a special rate at the conference hotel.

PROGRAM

"Managing Performance"

1. Soonhee Kim, After the Asian Financial Crisis: Government Performance, Democratic Governance, and Trust in Government in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.

2. Larry Cooley and Emil Bolongaita, Transforming Institutions for Greater Effectiveness and Results.

3. Robert Taliercio, Cambodia's Public Financial Management Reforms, 2004-2007: Explaining a Case of 'Turnaround.

"Decentralization"

1. Richard Norman and Tom Bentley, At the centre or in control? Central agencies in search of new identities.

2. David Craig and Doug Porter, Decentralisation, new institutional reforms, and the public good: Cambodian experiences; and Eng Netra, Decentralisation And Accountability In Cambodia (authors will collaborate on a joint paper).

3. Geoff Dixon and Danya Hakim, Budget Decentralisation Experience in Indonesia.

"Combating corruption"

1. Jon S.T. Quah, Combating Corruption in the Asia-Pacific Countries: What do We Know and What Needs to be Done?

2. David S Jones, Competition and Transparency in Government Procurement in Southeast Asia.

3. Roby Arya Brata, Why did an Anticorruption Policy Fail? A Study of the Implementation Failure of Anticorruption Policies of the Authoritarian New Order Regime and the Transitional Democratic Reform Order Regime of Indonesia, 1971-2007.

CONTACTS, ASIA PACIFIC GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE

Clay G. Wescott, Director
Asia Pacific Governance Institute
Skype cwescott
Website: http://www.asiagovernance.org
Email: cwescott@post.harvard.edu

Lawrence R. Jones
George F. A. Wagner Professor of Public Management
Graduate School of Business and Public Policy
Naval Graduate University and
President, International Public Management Network
Monterey, CA 93943-5000
Fax (831) 656-3407
Email: dukedmb@aol.com


ADVISORY BOARD

Michael Barzelay, Professor of Public Management
Department of Management
London School of Economics
London, UK
Website: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/MES/people/Barzelay/Default.htm
Email: m.barzelay@lse.ac.uk

Bidhya Bowornwathana, Associate Professor
Department of Public Administration
Faculty of Political Science
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand.
Email: bidhya.b@chula.ac.th

Alex Bello. Brillantes, Jr., Dean and Professor
National College of Public Administration and Governance, University
of the Philippines, Secretary-General of the Association of Schools of
Public Administration of the Philippines, and Deputy Secretary General
of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA)
Emails: abrillantes2001@yahoo.com; abbrillantes@up.edu.ph,
abbrillantesw@gmail.com

Anthony B L Cheung, Professor
Department of Public & Social Administration
City University of Hong Kong
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Website: http://www.cityu.edu.hk/sa/staff/academic/staff_files/SABLTONY.htm
Email: SABLTONY@cityu.edu.hk

Jon Quah, Professor of Political Science (retired)
National University of Singapore
Singapore
Email: jonstquah@gmail.com
Website: http://www.jonstquah.com

Kuno Schedler, Professor
University of St. Gallen
St. Gallen, Switzerland
Website: http://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/persons/person/S/Kuno_Schedler/L-en
Email: kuno.schedler@unisg.ch

Jiannan Wu, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Dean
School of Public Policy and Administration
Xi'an Jiaotong University
Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Email: jnw@mail.xjtu.edu.cn