2nd Asian Public Governance Forum on Public Innovation

OPENING SESSION
Keynote Address
0.1 / Edwin Lau, Head of Division, Reform of the Public Sector Division, OECD

SESSION 1 — Structuring and Coordinating Innovation: Models Across OECD Countries
How public sector innovation and reform is managed by government differs within and across countries. In more centralised systems, the central government can play a role in co-ordinating a strategy and resources for innovation across the whole of government (including at sub-national levels). In contexts with higher degrees of decentralization, individual public sector organisations may be expected to take the responsibility for organising and managing innovation discretely within their own organisations. The level of and type of co-ordination can differ as well, ranging from informal innovation networks and knowledge sharing to mandatory scaling-up of proven innovations. This session will discuss how innovation efforts are co-ordinated in OECD and SEA countries, looking at whether formal responsibilities for public sector innovation are assigned and articulated (e.g. specific ministerial portfolios on innovation); the role or dedicated innovation units at ministerial/agency level or cross-cutting central units who identify, monitor and help to replicate innovation across the administration; and the use of informal co-ordination and networking mechanisms.

Speakers
1.1 / Alex Roberts, Innovation Advocate, Innovation Policy & Coordination, Science and Commercialisation, Department of Industry and Science, Australia (moderator)
1.2 / Dosuk Lee, Associate Research Fellow, Centre for International Public Cooperation, Korea Institute of Public Administration

Panelists
Damayani Tyastianti, Deputy of Public Service, Ministry of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform, Indonesia

1.4 / Marcelino R. Pandin, City Finance Advisor, UN-HABITAT Nairobi AND Vice Chairman, Center for Local Government Innovation, Indonesia

SESSION 2 — Cases of Innovation from Korea’s Government 3.0

The Government 3.0 initiative of Korea is designed to be “a new paradigm for government operation to deliver customized public services and generate new jobs in a creative manner by opening and sharing government-owned data to the public and encouraging communication and collaboration between government departments.” Focusing on critical pillars of public innovation – such as transparency, administrative competency, and customized service delivery, and creative economy – this initiative seeks to ultimately increase citizen’s overall sense of well-being. This session will explore Government 3.0 in further detail, with a specific discussion on measuring societal outputs of data openness in the arena of welfare and public health, and utilizing such outputs to expand benefits of openness as well as consider implications and alternatives to encourage further openness.

Speakers

2.1 / Kwangseok Yoon, Research Fellow, Department of Public Management Research, Korea Institute of Public Administration (moderator)

2.2 / YS Lee, Executive Principle, National Information Society Agency of Korea

Panelists (10 min ea.)

Nguyen Thanh Binh, Vice Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics-Region1, Vietnam

2.4 / Alessandro Bellantoni, Project Manager, Open Government, OECD

SESSION 3 — Strengthening Capacities for Public Sector Organizations: Case Studies of Vietnam

This session specifically examines three aspects of recent innovative governance in Vietnam: innovations in current public administration procedures, strengthening capabilities of legislative and policy drafting for sustainable development, and the uses of e-government in public sector, especially in order to achieve better transparency and accountability.

Speakers

3.1 / Nguyen Vu Hoang, Acting Dean, State and Law Faculty, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics-Region1, Vietnam (moderator)

3.2 / Bach Ngoc Chien, Vice Chairman, People’s Committee of Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam

3.3 / Tran Van Ngoi, President, Institute for State Organizational Sciences, Ministry of Home Affairs, Vietnam

Panelists

3.4 / Warren Turner, Senior Public Management Specialist, Social Development, Governance and Gender Division, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department , Asian Development Bank

3.5 / Jongseol Yoon, Director of Research Unit for Government 3.0, Korea Institute of Public Administration

SESSION 4 — Strengthening Human Skills and Capacities: the Role of HRM

Civil servants and public employees are central at every stage of innovation processes, therefore the management and development of government employees are fundamental enablers to build organisational capacity to innovate. This session will discuss country approaches to organise and manage public workforces to create the right context for innovation to occur within the public sector. The discussion will cover aspects related to setting up the right incentive system for public servants (e.g. through awards, formal/informal recognition, etc.), managing public sector culture and values, learning systems, and skills and competency development for innovation.

Speakers (20 min ea.)

4.1 / Marco Daglio, Project Manager, Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, OECD (moderator)
4.2 / Inbo Song, Research Fellow,Government Employees Pension Service Research Institute, Korea
4.3 / Tran Thi Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director, Institute of Leadership and Public Policy, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Vietnam

Panelists (10 min ea.)

Yernar Zharkeshov, Head of Research Team, Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana, Kazakhstan
4.5 / Myrna Chua, Assistant Secretary, Department of Budget and Management, Philippines

SESSION 5 — Managing Data, Information and Knowledge

Capturing, processing and sharing data and information from each organisation’s external environment are critical for understanding the demand and needs of citizens. Effective capacity to produce and use performance data serves also to support the innovative capacity of organisations so that they can identify areas that require innovation. Traditional hierarchical bureaucracies have often limited the horizontal flow of information due to rigid regulations and incompatible information management practices. This session will discuss what tools countries are using to support better information flows across organisations and how this impacts organisations’ innovative capacity.

Speakers

5.1 / Keitha Booth, Director, New Zealand Open Government Information and Data Programme, New Zealand (moderator
5.2 / Kwangsok Oh, Government 3.0 Division3, National Information Society Agency of Korea

Panelists (10 min ea.)

5.3 / Doris Becker, Programme Coordinator,Transforming Administration – Strengthening Innovation(TRANSFORMASI)/ Coordinator, Good Governance and Global Networks; Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur International Zusammenarbeit
5.4 / Marcelino R. Pandin, City Finance Advisor, UN-HABITAT Nairobi AND Vice Chairman, Center for Local Government Innovation, Indonesia
5.5 / Kittiya Khampee, Senior Expert in Public Sector Development, Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC), Thailand

SESSION 6 — Simplifying Rules and Regulations

Rethinking the regulation of processes and services can be used as a lever to change public organisations’ incentives and ability to innovate. While rules and regulations are set with a purpose (e.g. stewardship and accountability in the use of public funds), they might have unintended effects on stifling organisations’ capacity to innovate. For example, privacy and security arrangements sets by governments (e.g. to protect the confidentiality of information owned by an agency) can limit development of open models of web-based knowledge sharing and interaction with the public. Many OECD countries have gone through extensive reviews of their legislation, but few do so with a view to look at the impact of internal administrative requirements on the capacity of organisations to innovate. This session will discuss the challenges to innovation raised by overly regulated administrative environments and identify country approaches to overcome them.

Speakers (30 min ea.)

João Vasconcelos, Head of Unit, Projects and Innovation Team, Agency for Administrative Modernization, Portugal, (moderator)

Nguyen Dang Truong, Vice President, Public Procurement Agency, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam

Panelists (10 min ea.)

6.3 / Mohammed Alamin bin Rehan, Senior Consultant, Regulatory Reform Dept., Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Malaysia

6.4 / OL Ro, General Dept. of Administration and Finance, Ministry of Civil Service, Cambodia