The Philippines, through the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) and the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), successfully hosted the International Conference on Public Sector Productivity (ICPSP) on October 10-12 at the DAP Conference Center in Tagaytay City. DAP President and Chief Executive Officer Elba S. Cruz opened the conference with the current state of productivity in the public sector. “For the public sector, the journey has been far more complex because of constraints that include limited knowledge or access to updated technology as well as the reluctance to modify or replace long-standing systems and processes,” Cruz said. The ICPSP provided an excellent venue to discuss among public sector professionals the challenges hindering public sector productivity, as well as to come up with ways to resolve them.  Office of the President Deputy Executive Secretary and keynote speaker Alberto A. Bernardo was optimistic and took pride in the ICPSP.  He said, “The hosting of this conference highlights greater accountability to our public sector agencies to be more agile and responsive in bringing results and achieving outcomes for the benefit of our citizens.”  

ICPSP 2017.
About the conference With the theme “Transforming the Public Sector in the Age of Innovation,” the conference stimulated a collective effort to transform the public sector through innovations in productivity improvement and to achieve national goals and societal outcomes. The event also served as an opportunity to exchange knowledge and inspire transformations in the public sector with regard to emerging trends, technologies, methodologies, and innovations merged with new policies to impact productivity. Experts from the United States, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, Malaysia, India, Japan, Canada, Australia and the Philippines shared knowledge and insights on these areas: 1) next-generation governance, 2) productivity and performance management for the government of the future, 3) public sector leadership for the future, 4) whole-of-government approach, and 5) people management for modern public sector organizations. The conference gathered more than 600 public sector professionals from national government agencies, local government units, APO member countries, the DAP’s Public Management Development Program alumni, the academe, state universities and colleges, and other institutions.

About the DAP: The DAP is a government-owned and controlled corporation founded by Leonides Virata and Onofre Corpuz on June 23, 1973.  Today, the DAP is known as a government think tank and training institution.  The DAP, being the National Productivity Organization of the Philippines, serves as the APO Secretariat and the implementing institution of the APO’s Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity, a distinction the country earned in 2015.