BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

FROM GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNANCE: PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN THE ASIA·PACIFIC REGION

Author: Mohammad Mohabbat Khan

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/BIISSj2002v23n2a4

ABSTRACT

Reforming public management has been an on-going process in many countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The impulse for such reform came as a result of globalization and viewing governance from two perspectives-NPM strategies and networks, partnerships and deliberative forums. Many factors including market determination, public dissatisfaction with service delivery, growing demand for participation in decision-making, and disillusion with the standard of public. sector resource management contributed to the sustaining of public management reform. As a result of reforms and innovations in governance in the region, the character of civil service in the future will be radically altered with more emphasis on competition and flexibility, merit-based performance, promotion and pay, and massive replacement of permanent staff by contract staff. Increasing' interaction, co-operation and dependence of the public sector on the private sector, NGOs, and CBOs will become a regular practice. Greater use of information technology will become an indispensable component of future governance. Devolution of authority to elected local government bodies will give way to highly centralized governmental systems, enabling meaningful participation in the governance process by the local stakeholders.