Governance and Public Sector Reform in Asia Monthly Update
December 2003

Compiled by Governance in Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong <www.cityu.edu.hk/garc>
15 Dec 2003


I.

Pan-Asia Development


Three Asian cities came top in digital governance study
The E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark, United States, and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, jointly conducted a survey to evaluate digital governance in 100 municipalities around the world. The study covered 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users, and examined the official websites of the largest city of each of these countries (Hong Kong and Macau included), focusing on five core areas, namely: Security and Privacy, Usability, Content, Services and Citizen Participation. 3 Asian cities came top in the evluation. On a 100-point scale, Seoul scored 73.48, followed by Hong Kong (66.57) and Singapore (62.97).
http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~egovinst/Website/researchpg.htm

II.

National/Local Updates:
(16 October - 30 November 2003)


China
  • China considers turning research institutions into nonprofit organizations
    A senior official of the Ministry of Science and Technology said the ministry is considering ways to convert research institutions, whose work is for pubic interest or social benefits, into nonprofit organizations, as well as the possibility of encouraging private sector and individuals to invest in them so as to reduce government financing.
    http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/78276.htm

  • New measures for improving efficiency and quality of judges
    The Provisional Measures on Clerk Administration in the People's Court were issued jointly by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the Personnel Ministry and the Supreme People's Court on 27 October 2003. Before this new policy, clerks employed by the courts were always regarded as administrative cadres as well as judges, with a career path enabling them to be promoted to assistant judges and then judges, resulting in an unbalanced structure today whereby nearly two-thirds of the 300,000 personnel in the courts at all levels are judges. The new policy define clearly that clerks are assistant personnel for judiciary affairs.
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-10/28/content_1145668.htm
    Text of the Provisional Measures on Clerk Administration in the People's Court (in Simplified Chinese)
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/zhengfu/2003-10/28/content_1146967.htm
Korea
  • Cabinet proposed revisions to Family Registry Law
    A revision bill on the Korean family registry law was approved by the cabinet on 28 October 2003 which, pending endorsement by the National Assembly, would allow women to become legal heads of the family and children to adopt surnames of either their mother or stepfather. The revision bill calls for the abolition of the registry system, known as hojuje in Korean, which is considered to symbolize men's long-standing seniority over women within the family.
    Korea.net > News > Government Press Releases > Society/Culture >
    Cabinet proposed revisions to Family Law (October 29, 2003)

  • Draft bill for Balanced National Development
    The Ministry of Planning and Budget revealed the Cabinet's plan to propose a Special Law for Balanced National Development to the National Assembly by the end of 2003. The proposed special law is targeted at improving various regional infrastructures as well as local industrial and cultural development, through demanding both the central and regional governments to prepare every five years a comprehensive balanced development plan. A presidential advisory panel would also be established to review related policies while an earmarked budget of 5 trillion won would be set up for the balanced development projects.
    http://www.mpb.go.kr/index_eng.html (News & Date > Press Release > No.277)
    http://www.mpb.go.kr/attach/morgue/bbs1/031016-Press%20Release.PDF
The Philippines
  • Revised Policies on Qualification Standards for appointing officials
    The Civil Service Commission recently reviewed and consolidated all existing policies on qualifications standards which governed the selection of personnel and evaluation of appointments to all positions in the government. The Commission stressed that those appointments without approved qualification standards would be disapproved or invalidated.
    http://www.csc.gov.ph/news_updates.html#October 24 and news archive of previous dates

III.

Reports and Publications:

Books and Journal Articles

  • Chinese Administrative Reforms with British, American and Japanese Characteristics?, by Mengzhong Zhang and Jeffrey D. Straussman, Public Administration and Policy, Vol. 12 No. 2, September 2003, pp. 143-180.

  • "Downsizing" the Chinese State: Government Retrenchment in the 1990s, by John P. Burns, The China Quarterly, No. 175, September 2003, pp 775-802.

  • Facing Citizen Complaints in China, 1951-1996, by Laura M. Luehrmann, Asian Survey, Vol. 43, No. 5, pp. 845-866.

  • Implementing Recruitment and Selection Reform in China's Civil Service in the 1990s: An Application of Ambiguity-Conflict Model of Policy Implementation, by Bill Kwok-ping Chou, Public Administration and Policy, Vol. 12 No. 2, September 2003, pp. 83-114.

  • Three-Way Categorisations, Hybrids and Intersectoral Mixes in the Governance Equation, by Roger Wettenhall, The Asian Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 25 No. 1, June 2003, pp. 57-86.

Other Papers

  • Report of the MoF (Ministry of Finance) Team Studying Regional Regulations Concerning Regional Taxes and Regional Retributions, Decentralisation News, No. 52, 21 November 2003, pp. 1 & 3.
    http://www.gtzsfdm.or.id/documents/dec_ind/newsletter/Newsletter52.pdf
    Decentralisation News is an electronic newsletter published by the Support for Decentralisation Measures Project (SfDM) for sharing information on the Indonesian decentrlisation process. The SfDM is one among the various joint-efforts between the Indonesian and German governments in supporting the implementaion of decentralization in Indonesia.


IV.

Forthcoming Conferences: (January 2004 - July 2004)

  • The 65th ASPA National Conference on "Transforming Governance in a World Without Boundaries", 27-30 March 2004, Portland, Oregon, organized by American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).
    http://www.aspanet.org/2004conf/

  • The 26th International Congress of Administrative Sciences on "E-Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for Democracy, Administration and Law", 14-18 July 2004, Seoul, Republic of Korea, organized by International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS). (Professor Pan S. Kim of Yonsei University has been appointed as the Rapporteur General of the conference.)
    http://www.iiasiisa.be/iias/aicor/aikorea.htm


V.

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From this issue onwards, this monthly update will be distributed on the 15th of each month.