Challenging Road Ahead For Public Services
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, delivered a reminder that the commitment to ensure the effective implementation of government programmes and policies is now more challenging than ever, especially in terms of the higher standards of public services that are expected and demanded by our increasingly sophisticated society.

In his sabda while officiating an international Eastern Regional Organisation for Public Administration (EROPA) seminar yesterday, organised by Public Service Department and EROPA, His Royal Highness said the performance of our public services is now regularly benchmarked against some of the better, if not the best public services in both the regional and international spectrum.

"As such, upgrading the skills, competitiveness and professionalism of our public officials is now a prime necessity.

This process of human capacity building and human resource development has to date, resulted in the biggest investment in our public sector human resource development, with an allocation of an additional $250 million to the current development plan on top of the existing annual budget".

HRH also spoke on the challenge of harnessing the rapid advancements in IT to improve public services through e-government development and implementations in civil service infrastructure.

HRH also reiterated the importance of strategic partnership of public and private sectors to facilitate healthy economic growth and added that with an everincreasing challenge to the global economy, it is inevitable that governments place greater emphasis on inputs and feedback from the private sector towards better public sector governance.

Earlier HRH said the last decade through to the turn of this century has seen a concerted shift in perceptions and expectations towards public service and its mechanism of delivery.

Governments have of course been at the forefront of this shift and have been the prime movers in striving to ensure that the services they provide are in tune with the expectations of their citizens.

Indeed, our acceptance and realisation that change is inevitable plays a major role in all our efforts to ensure that we provide quality services that must constantly remain relevant to the socio-economic and geopolitical factors that affect the living standards of our people.

All round the world these efforts have included a'major redefinition of the role of the public services as that of a major facilitator of socio-economic development and the key factor in providing a conducive environment for investment and growth.

With the onset of globalisation, this role has taken on a regional and global dimension, where the quality of the public services in any given nation now plays a significant role in determining its attractiveness as a destination for foreign investors.

The emphasis now is on the elements of public accountability, transparency, stronger codes of ethics for holders of public offices, the prevention of corruption, best work practices, institutional human capacity building and the development of information technology.

These elements are this century's frontlines in `governance' and they demand our utmost attention and efforts in order to realise quality public services that are more efficient and effective in meeting the demands of society, said HRH.

Meanwhile, Dato Paduka Awg Hj Saifon bin Hj Awg Besar, Director-General of Public Services, said the theme of the four-day seminar on "Modernising the Civil Service in Alignment with National Development Goals" was chosen in view of the fact that the world in which the Civil Service operates is changing fast and expectations from the public are increasing rapidly as technology, lifestyle changes and uncertainties are constrained by external means and internal norms.

Five local and 38 foreign speakers will present papers at the seminar, which brings together experts, policy makers, civil servants and managers.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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