ASEAN Heads of Civil Service Retreat

ASEAN Heads of Civil Service Retreat

Link to photos.

ASEAN

Cyberjaya-Selangor, MALAYSIA 

Tuesday, 17th November 2015 

The ASEAN Heads of Civil Service signed today the Putrajaya Joint Declaration on ASEAN Post-2015 Priorities Towards an ASEAN Citizen-Centric Civil Service. The Declaration embodies ASEAN’s recognition of the need for civil service reform and greater engagement of the peoples to meet their needs, welfare and expectations as a people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN Community. The Declaration also acknowledged the importance of good governance in promoting sustainable development in ASEAN.  It stipulates concrete actions to be taken by ASEAN Member States collectively and individually including strengthening good governance, integrity and cooperation in civil service, capacity building, technical cooperation, prioritising good regulatory practices (GRP) and promoting the highest standards of professionalism, efficiency, effectiveness, participatory approach, responsiveness, transparency and accountability in the civil service.

Prior to the signing ceremony, the ASEAN Heads of Civil Service Retreat was held on 17 November 2015 in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. The Retreat was officiated by H.E. Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia and was chaired by H.E. Alicia dela-Rosa Bala, the 18^th ACCSM Chair and Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines. The Retreat deliberated on strategies to heighten the ASEAN Cooperation on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM) in post-2015. Actions to strengthen the institutional arrangement of ACCSM were deliberated, including the adoption of new themes for the six ASEAN Resource Centres (ARCs) notably: Managing Civil Service Competency (for the ARC led by Brunei Darussalam), Public Service Delivery (Cambodia), ASEAN Pool of Experts on Civil Service (Indonesia), Strategic Collaboration through National Blue Ocean Strategy (Malaysia), ASEAN Leaders in Strategic Human Resource Programme – Building a Future-Ready Public Service (Singapore), and Supporting Public Service Reform (Viet Nam). The current themes of the other four ARCs are Civil Service Performance Management (Lao PDR), Training for Trainers for Civil Service (Myanmar), Examination and Testing (Philippines), and Leadership Development (Thailand).

The ASEAN Heads of Civil Service agreed to rebrand the ACCSM to become “ASEAN Cooperation on Civil Service Matters” to appropriately reflect the collaboration and coordination among ASEAN Member States. They also agreed to continue the ASEAN Heads of Civil Service Retreat biennially in future, and to streamline meetings under ACCSM for efficiency. Strategies to promote ASEAN awareness among civil servants and inter-sectoral cooperation on cross-cutting issues of civil service and good governance were deliberated. The ASEAN Heads of Civil Service also agreed to expand the ACCSM cooperation with ASEAN Dialogue Partners. Currently, the ACCSM is cooperating with the Plus Three Countries through joint projects in the ACCSM Plus Three Work Plan 2012-2015.

In conjunction with the Retreat, the ASEAN Civil Service Games are held from 16 to 19 November 2015 participated in by over 600 civil servants from ASEAN Member States in friendly yet competitive sports of golf, badminton, futsal, table tennis, and bowling.  Games were held in various sport centers in Klang Valley. The ASEAN Civil Service Games aimed to strengthen networking and solidarity among civil servants across the region and to build their awareness of ASEAN and sense of regionality.

As part of the week-long series of ASEAN civil service events, the ASEAN Civil Service Innovation Conference was held with the theme “Towards an ASEAN Citizen-Centric Civil Service” will be held from 18 to19 November 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Conference will provide a platform for exchange of views and information on strategies to strengthen civil service performance and quality of service delivery to the people. Jointly organised by the Public Service Department of Malaysia and the Razak School of Government, the Conference is expected to be attended by around 300 participants from the region.