ASEAN states overhauls civil services

ASEAN states overhauls civil services

SINGAPORE (AFP): ASEAN states are overhauling their civil
services to cope with increasing public demand for honest
government amid rapid economic development in southeast Asia,
officials said yesterday.

Top civil servants from the regional grouping attending a
meeting here to beef up government reforms said moves to boost
civil service efficiency stemmed from the growing expectations of
people who feel an honest and open government is their right.

"The public expects to be treated like valued customers -- and
they should. Outdated ways of operating and serving the public
must make ways for new modes of service delivery that will meet
these expectations," said Singapore's civil service head Lee Ek
Tieng.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and will add Cambodia, Laos and
Myanmar later this month.

Lee told senior ASEAN officials here the region's civil
services must harness the potential of technology more
effectively through new "public service initiatives."

Officials said among new ASEAN civil service initiatives was
Malaysia's plan to set up "electronic kiosks" where information
technology would be used in nearly all government dealings with
the public.

"What is also encouraging is that these initiatives have come
about not for reform's sake but because of the realization that
we need to anticipate the opportunities and changes ahead in the
regional environment," Lee said.

Corazon de Leon, chairman of the Philippine Civil Service
Commission, said it was "the right of citizens to have an honest
public service" and added the Philippines was actively
decentralizing its government functions to boost efficiency.

Vietnam is also adopting public administration reforms
following complaints by foreign investors of bureaucratic delays,
said Do Quang Trung, chairman of Vietnam's government panel on
organization and personnel.

Officials from Myanmar and Laos as well Australia, Canada,
India, Japan, New Zealand and Russia are also attending as
observers at the four-day civil service conference.

While new entrants Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar intend to
eventually integrate their economies into ASEAN's regional free
trade plan, there would be no integrated ASEAN civil service,
officials said.

"The philosophy of our meetings is not a question of
integrating our public services because we have recognized that
the best we can do is to learn from the experience of one
another," said Mazlan Ahmad, director-general of Malaysia's
public services department.

Dhannanjaya Sunoto, director of the ASEAN bureau of
cooperation and dialog relations, said the grouping would not
have a special program to raise the level of civil services in
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to those of the older members.

"However, we are advocating that individual member countries
provide bilateral assistance to the new members and we are also
asking our dialog partners to also assist," Dhannanjaya said.