Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

What is the Asia Pacific Panel?

The Asia Pacific Panel has been organized as an annual series of reviewing the experiences of national governance in Asia Pacific countries. Main purpose of the panel is to exchange knowledge and experiences on public administration and governance of respective countries and to review the efforts made by the Asia Pacific countries in public management.

Who organizes the Asia-Pacific Panel?

The Japan Committee for the Study of NPM organizes the panel with the financial assistance from donors. The committee was established in 1999 to promote the study of public management with the international perspectives. The committee is headed by Prof. Hiromitsu Kataoka of Waseda University, Japan, who is a former member of the executive council of the IIAS. The other members of the committee are leading experts in the study of public administration, please see this_page for a complete list. Professor Yuko Kaneko of the University of Yamagata is in charge of managing and coordinating various matters relevant to the panel including the panel’s theme and program.

What is the relation between the Asia-Pacific Panel and IIAS?

The meeting of the panel constitutes one of the sessions of the annual conference of IIAS. IIAS jointly convenes the panel meeting.

Can we have the reports of the past panel meetings?

The report of the each meeting of the panel was compiled and published by the Japan Committee for the Study of NPM. However, we could only distribute the reports to a limited number of people because of the financial constraints. To overcome this difficulty, we have constructed this website to distribute valuable information taken from the past meetings of the panel.

Why was the Asia-Pacific panel organized in 1999?

There was little visibility of the Asia Pacific countries in the IIAS annual conferences in the 1990s. Under such a circumstance, the Asia Pacific Panel was for the first time organized in 1999 to introduce, in the international scene, the experiences of the Asia-Pacific countries in the field of public administration and to have common understanding of the efforts made by these countries. Since then, we held five meetings of the panel jointly with the IIAS secretariat.

Who are the speakers of the panel meeting?

The panel has been inviting selected experts from the Asia Pacific countries to present their experiences in governance. The comparative approach is regarded as the most appropriate to understand the characteristics and challenges of specific experiences on governance, so that experts from the other regions such as Africa or Europe as well as those from the international organizations have been involved in the panel as discussants.

What is the most appropriate theme to be discussed at the panel?

The past themes are relevant to the current changes in government and society. These are:

Government reforms in Japan
Regional Cooperation and Integration Efforts in Public Management in the Asia-Pacific Region - A Comparative Approach
From Government to Governance: Experiences and Future Perspectives in the Asia-Pacific Region
Role Sharing and Collaboration between Governments and NGO's for National Development
NGOs in E-governance

As you see, the panel is focused on the reforms, the relationships between government and civil society. It will pick up most outstanding topics on public administration relevant to the governance.