Heads of the civil service from ASEAN countries have shared informationon national strategies and good practices in promoting effectivegovernance towards fulfilling people’s aspirations and welfare anddiscussed the post-2015 priority areas of cooperation.

Thosepriorities are intended to respond to the current and emergingchallenges and opportunities for civil service sector in the ongoingASEAN Community building, they said at 17th ASEAN Cooperation on CivilMatters (ACCSM) meeting in Yangon, Myanmar, last week.

Theyagreed that the increasing demands for quality public services should beaddressed through the promotion of responsive, accountable, effectiveand efficient public service sector.

Enhancing workforcecompetencies, building institutional capacity and strengtheningleadership were considered as priority areas that remain relevant in thefuture.

In addition, several new priority areas are exploredincluding public sector reform towards quality service delivery thatmeets changing demands and rising expectations of citizens currently andbeyond 2015, and improvement of civil service competency standards andpromotion of government official’s understanding of ASEAN.

Participantsemphasised the need to enhance the ASEAN Resource Centre (ARC) trainingprogrammes for civil servants through the implementation of nine pilotcooperation projects.

They agreed to work together towards thedevelopment of ASEAN Plus Three (China, the Republic of Korea and Japan)projects on civil service matters between 2016 and 2020 in areas ofmutual interest.

The 18th ACCSM Chairmanship for 2016 – 2018 will be held by the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines.-VNA