Heads of the civil service from ASEAN countries have shared information
on national strategies and good practices in promoting effective
governance towards fulfilling people’s aspirations and welfare and
discussed the post-2015 priority areas of cooperation.
Those
priorities are intended to respond to the current and emerging
challenges and opportunities for civil service sector in the ongoing
ASEAN Community building, they said at 17th ASEAN Cooperation on Civil
Matters (ACCSM) meeting in Yangon, Myanmar, last week.
They
agreed that the increasing demands for quality public services should be
addressed through the promotion of responsive, accountable, effective
and efficient public service sector.
Enhancing workforce
competencies, building institutional capacity and strengthening
leadership were considered as priority areas that remain relevant in the
future.
In addition, several new priority areas are explored
including public sector reform towards quality service delivery that
meets changing demands and rising expectations of citizens currently and
beyond 2015, and improvement of civil service competency standards and
promotion of government official’s understanding of ASEAN.
Participants
emphasised the need to enhance the ASEAN Resource Centre (ARC) training
programmes for civil servants through the implementation of nine pilot
cooperation projects.
They agreed to work together towards the
development of ASEAN Plus Three (China, the Republic of Korea and Japan)
projects on civil service matters between 2016 and 2020 in areas of
mutual interest.
The 18th ACCSM Chairmanship for 2016 – 2018 will be held by the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines.-VNA