EAST ASIA - Seminar on Decentralization in East Asia and the Philippines: SECOND Session

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Over the past two decades, subnational governments in East Asia have taken on core responsibilities for raising and spending public money and for providing critical services and infrastructure. This decentralization has unleashed local initiative and energy, providing new ways to deliver services to people. With great potential for continued improvement and innovation, says a new World Bank report, it is essential that decentralization be carried out correctly. The report, East Asia Decentralizes—Making Local Government Work, was launched during a policy seminar on Decentralization in East Asia and the Philippines on June 14, 2005, at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City, Philippines. The event was organized by the Center for Local and Regional Governance at the University of the Philippines and the World Bank, in partnership with the Philippine Department of Interior and Local Government. Alex B. Brillantes, Jr., Dean of the National College of Public Administration and Governance at the University of the Philippines, chaired the event. The second session centered on a presentation by Jorge Vazquez-Martinez, Economics Professor at Georgia State University, who provided an international perspective on Philippine decentralization. Vazquez-Martinez pointed out that while the Philippine system had a good start, a second generation of reforms is still needed. He insisted that reliance on transfers, among other concerns, has prevented local governments from being truly able to fend for themselves. A panel discussion on decentralization challenges in the Philippines followed. Panelists included Representative Rodolfo Agbayani, Member of the Philippine House Committee on Local Government; Geronimo Treñas, President of the League of Cities and Mayor of Iloilo City; Sixto Donato Macasaet, Executive Director of the Caucus of Development Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Network; and Galina Kurlyandskaya, General Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy (Moscow).

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