The study is national in scope. It focused mainly on domestic / industrial water supply (for households and industries) for both urban and peri-urban water supply and ground water.

Influenced by the “new public management” concept, the APO and other institutions are rethinking how to measure productivity in the public sector, since its roles affect the lives of all citizens. Along with overviews of methods used in Australia, Finland, New Zealand, and the UK to improve public services, efforts in eight APO members are examined in detail, focusing on their tax and passport agencies.

The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) has had a major focus on improving public sector productivity (PSP) since 2009. This means achieving efficient performance using limited government resources. Generally, it is about ensuring value for taxpayers’ money since public resources largely come from taxes. A PSP Program framework was developed allowing the APO and its 19 National Productivity Organizations to adopt a coordinated approach to promoting innovation and productivity in the public sector in the short, medium, and long terms.

This report encapsulates the learning from the First Public-sector Performance Study Mission in Europe from 27 September to 2 October 2015 and makes recommendations to the APO. The mission visited Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg and was facilitated by: Terry Pilcher (Partner), BCS Management Services (UK); Patrick Staes (Belgian Seconded National Expert), Nick Thjjs (Senior Lecturer), and Ann Stoffels (Senior Program Assistant), Common Assessment Framework (CAF) Resource Centre, European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA); and Bruce Searles and Anton Benc (Directors), Benchmarking Partnerships (Asia/Pacific). The study mission was attended by delegates from Fiji, Mongolia, the Philippines (including the APO Center of Excellence on PSP), and Singapore.