EROPA Conference highlights public governance’s role

Hanoi is hosting the 2023 Public Administration and Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) Conference from October 17 to 20, highlighting the role of public governance in socio-economic recovery and development towards sustainable development goals.

The event was attended by various diplomatic missions from nine EROPA member countries, more than 300 international delegates, and 200 scholars, managers, and leaders from Vietnamese ministries and agencies.

Addressing the opening session, EROPA Secretary General Alex Brillantes Jr. said the event aims to strengthen public administration to accelerate socio-economic recovery and ensure Sustainable Development Goals.

He noted that the world is facing numerous challenges, from public health crises to environmental issues and social inequalities, adding that public administration, public governance, and public services are more important and urgent than ever to address these issues.

Brillantes affirmed that the knowledge and experience presented at the conference provide more opportunities for comprehensive development, with more than 150 research papers focusing on socioeconomic recovery and growth, public administration innovation, and public administration capacity building.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien, Director of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and Head of Vietnam's EROPA state member delegation, emphasized the message of the conference and the positive role of EROPA in accelerating effective governance in member countries.

Nguyen Ba Chien, Director of NAPA, speaks at the conference. Photo: VGP

"We believe that cooperation and unity will be a solid platform for EROPA's practical actions for the realization of important goals so that we can build a sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world," Chien said.

He expected the conference to be a venue for EROPA member countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, to develop cooperation plans to strengthen public governance for socio-economic recovery.

Speaking on people's trust in government, Kenneth Sim, President of the Chandler Institute of Management in Singapore, said that the trust is very important for all issues in society.

"Building trust must start with improving government capacity. It is necessary to increase the government capacity index in correlation with the social progress index," he said.

Moreover, he added that organizations need to systematize management and administration skills, promote policy-making capacity and policy consultation, and provide information on how to build a capacity system for the government to increase people's trust.

Thematic session on building public administration capacity to promote socio-economic recovery and development. Photo: VGP

Speaking at the conference, Minister of the Interior Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected Vietnam and many other countries regarding growth and sustainable development. Therefore, this year's theme reflects EROPA's role and sense of responsibility towards regional and global development issues.

"Climate change and non-traditional security issues exposed the shortcomings of global governance during the pandemic. Therefore, it is expected that public governance will deal with the crisis and create an effective model of national governance," said Tra.

She stressed that national governance, together with global governance, should be a true "launching pad" for development. She expected the 2023 EROPA Conference to provide deep and comprehensive insights into public administration reform and civil service reform.

Founded in 1960, EROPA is an international organization of states, groups, and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region to respond to the common desire of developing and developed countries to enhance regional cooperation in public administration.

It was the first public administration organization in the region to contribute to accelerating the economic and social development of the countries of Asia and the Pacific.