The Asian Productivity Organization, through the Development Academy of the Philippines, will hold the 2nd International Conference on Public Sector Productivity on November 22 to 23, 2018 at the DAP Conference Center in Tagaytay City.

The two-day conclave, as was done during the conference’s initial edition in 2017, will provide a forum for discussing focus areas that impact the productivity of the public sector, including emerging innovations and trailblazing technologies as well as future challenges  and risks facing government organizations, stakeholders, and citizens.

The Philippines, as the APO’s Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity with the DAP as its focal organization, hosts the annual conference to catalyze the exchange of ideas and sustain collaboration among the APO’s 20 members states regarding public sector productivity initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

International platform

 The conference serves as an international platform for knowledge sharing and networking among organizations and professionals in the region regarding current developments as well as emerging trends and technologies that impact performance and productivity in the public sector.

This year’s conference theme is “Shaping a Future-Oriented and Smart Public Sector,” and will feature topics that directly respond to what public sector organizations must do to become alert, agile, innovative and future-ready in this era of complexity and rapidly-changing environment.

The first run of this international gathering was held on October 10-12 last year at the DAPCC in Tagaytay, with a total of 563 participants composed of officials and representatives from the Philippine government as well as other APO member countries, including Cambodia, Republic of China, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam attending.

Experts featured

  It featured experts from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea and the host country, who shared their knowledge on topics covering the theme “Transforming the Public Sector in the Age of Innovation.”  These included the future of governance, new frontiers in performance management and productivity measurement, human resource management, whole-of-government approach, and technology-driven public sector organizations of the future.

APO Secretary General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn keynoted the conference, highlighting the need for governments to develop their capabilities on strategic foresight to enable APO member countries to move beyond the present economic and social environment toward a progressive, productive and sustainable future.  Keynote speeches from then-DAP Chairman Menardo Guevarra and National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro also underscored the significance of involving the citizenry, in effect mainstreaming participatory governance in productivity improvement initiatives, which would lead to a public sector holistically transformed into a knowledge-based sector.