A 14-man delegation from Bangladesh came to visit the Development Academy of the Philippines and other government agencies to exchange information with the DAP and those agencies on the Bangladesh government’s Annual Performance Management System and the Philippine government’s own Results-Based Performance Management System or RBPMS.
The visit was arranged by the Department of Foreign Affairs with the DAP and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as lead agencies in the four-day tour that lasted from November 28 to December 1, 2016.
The Bangladeshi delegation, which was headed by Secretary for Coordination and Reforms N.M. Zeaul Alam of the Cabinet Division, made the DAP its first stopover in a trip that also took the group to the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Civil Service Commission, Department of Education, and the DBM.
DAP Senior Vice President Bernardo Dizon, standing in for DAP President Antonio Kalaw Jr. who was on an official trip during the Bangladeshis’ visit to the training and research institution’s Pasig office, welcomed the delegation, saying that the Philippines and Bangladesh have had more than three decades of friendly bilateral diplomatic relations. He said that the relations in fact just marked their 34th anniversary this past January.
Dizon said the steady growth in both depth and dimension of the bilateral relations between the two countries is signified by a memorandum of understanding that they have signed on foreign policy consultation on initiatives in such areas as education, information and communications technology, fisheries, aquaculture and sports as well as by the assistance each country provides each other during natural calamities. He said that when Super Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines in November 2013, Bangladesh donated $1 million as well as relief goods and medicines worth $165,000 to the victims.
Dizon said that Bangladesh and the Philippines “also share the same goal in enhancing the service quality of the government,” ensuring accountability and improvement in its performance. This, he said, may be reflected in the Bangladesh government’s introduction in 2014 of the Annual Performance Management System in all its ministries and divisions.
The DAP’s senior official told the delegates that the DAP thus arranged a program to enable the group to visit a select group of Philippine government agencies with whom they could expect a “rich exchange of views,” particularly on the government’s RBPMS, which was presented to them in detail at the DBM during the last day of their visit to the Philippines.