Malaysia proposes Commonwealth centre of excellence

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PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia yesterday expressed its readiness to work with the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management (CapamM) to establish a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Commonwealth Centre of Excellence.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the proposed centre would allow for the exchange of information on PPP efforts undertaken in Commonwealth countries and for the benchmarking of best practices to be shared by all.

He said that in today’s landscape, it was no longer sufficient for government agencies alone to work together as one entity in serving the public; they also needed to learn to work closely with the private sector comprising businesses and non-governmental organisations.

In his keynote address opening the 2014 biennial conference of Capam here, Muhyiddin said Malaysia had more than 30 years of experience implementing PPP and that the initiative had been instrumental in accelerating the country’s growth and economic development.

“Given our vast experience in PPP, Malaysia is also open to collaborating with its Commonwealth partners, particularly in capacity-building and consultancy.

“We are ready to cooperate with Capam and the Commonwealth Secretariat in establishing a PPP Commonwealth Centre of Excellence,” he said, adding that the centre would allow Malaysia to share its experience via Capam’s vast network.

In Malaysia, more than 600 projects had been implemented through the Initiative.

He said projects like the Federal Administrative Centre of Putrajaya, North-South Expressway, Port of Tanjung Pelepas and the KL international airports had spurred Malaysia’s economic growth, created new areas of development as well as improved accessibility and mobility.

“The interest in PPPs has grown in recent years across the world, and the need for fiscal restraint in some countries is expected to further widen its application,” he said.

The deputy prime minister also stressed on the need for the public service to break the silo mentality and for government organisations to learn to work in unison.

He said structures and procedures needed to be simplified and streamlined to provide public servants the ability to network among themselves, and with others.

“In Malaysia, the government has taken this matter seriously. One approach that has been initiated to break the barriers between government organisations and to bring them together is the National Blue Ocean Strategy or NBOS,” he said.

NBOS aims to deliver programmes and services to the public that are of high impact, low cost, and that can be rapidly executed. NBOS advocates ‘thinking out of the box’ in implementing projects and programmes which address issues confronting the economy.

Muhyiddin said over 60 NBOS initiatives had been implemented, and had benefited the people.

Among the NBOS initiatives, he said, were the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC), Rural Transformation Centre (RTC), 1Malaysia for Youth (1M4U), 1Malaysia Family Care (1MFC) and My Beautiful Neighbourhood (MyBN). — Bernama