The partnership will focus on training government officials in disciplines such as urban planning, e-government, human resources and transportation.
Discussions between the two countries began in 2008 when SAFEA began sending senior officials to Singapore to observe how the city-state’s civil servants are trained - SAFEA is China’s lead agency for overseeing, managing and approving all overseas training programmes for its government officials.
SAFEA declined to comment on the news. However, Zheng Xinguang, a local government official for the government of Dalian, told FutureGov that he hoped the agreement would see China’s civil service embrace change and emerging forms of governance.
“Of course, we’re not looking to copy how Singapore does things. But we want to ensure our public service adheres to certain standards as it modernises,” he said. Zheng added that the Chinese would be keen to learn from how Singapore developed its e-government masterplan and set up its Government Chief Information Office.
So what does Singapore have to gain from the partnership?
“China will continue to develop at a rapid pace in the coming decades. China’s public sector is absorbing experiences from many places. We can learn from China as it goes through this process,” a SCE spokesperson told FutureGov.
“The opportunity to interact with Chinese officials is valuable. If we know how to build good relationships with them on a personal level it can, for example, be helpful in our work to help our companies do business in China.”
The SCE was formed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore in 2006 to respond to foreign requests to learn from Singapore’s development experience.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Robin Hicks
Quelle/Source: FutureGov, 04.01.2010
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