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Proceedings
Message
of Mr. Omar Halim, Executive
Director of NAM CSSTC Jakarta,
Indonesia Yang Mulia, Dato Paduka Haji Abd
Wahab bin Juned, Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Excellencies Distinguished
Participants and Experts from NAM Member Countries Friends from the Government of
Brunei Darussalam Friends from the Business Community
and the Press Ladies and Gentlemen, It is indeed another pleasure for
us, the Board of Directors of NAM CSSTC, to be here in Bandar Seri Begawan
again cooperating with the Institut Perkhidmatan Awam (IPA) of the
Government of Brunei Darussalam in organizing this Meeting on “NAM
Reform: Privatization and Public-Private Partnership”. As we all know, since independence
most, if not all, NAM member countries have considered the provision of
public services as the sole responsibility of the government. This, no
doubt, was for a very good reason. These services, such as electricity,
water, health, education, transport and communication infrastructures,
together with law and order and defence, are services that the whole
population needed in their daily lives. And, since these services used to
be produced using large-scale production facilities, these public
companies were virtually monopolies in the respective sectors. Since the
government is to serve the people, the government would not operate these
companies for profit-making purposes. If necessary, the government would
even subsidize the business operation in order to keep the price of these
services low for the benefit of the people. So the reasoning went. Over the 1950s and 1960s, in the
developed countries, there was already intense debate over the above
reasoning. The fact was that in many countries, public services were
considered inefficient, providing poor service and lacking in the ability
to innovate taking advantage of more modern technologies. In the
developing countries, which were just emerging from the yoke of
colonialism, these issues were not yet focused on by the public. It was
more recently during the 1980s and the 1990s, where the economic growth
approach was based on market-oriented development that the question of
efficiency and the adequacy of public service became a focus of attention
among government policy-makers, their critics and the general public.
Furthermore, the lack of good governance and the ever-present government
budget deficit make it even more difficult to adhere to the above
mentioned rationale of retaining public utilities under the public domain.
The latent fear, or concern, is of course if these utilities, which in
many countries are still monopolies, are run by the private sector.
Although the profit motive of the private entrepreneur could make the
operation to be run more efficiently – but therefore would contribute to
increasing unemployment through large-scale lay-offs – the same profit motive will
no doubt result in exorbitant prices that have to be paid by the general
public for these services. This issue has become even more sensitive when
it is discussed in the context of direct foreign investment, which usually
comes from the developed countries: How could we entrust our “strategic
industries” to foreigners? Some would ask. This has been in short the
dilemma surrounding the issue of public versus private ownership and
management of public utilities. During the 1990s, there has been
discussion on public-private partnership concept which attempts to combine
the virtues of public and private roles in public utilities – perhaps
could be called a win-win option. This may be a very good alternative for
all of us in NAM to consider. Furthermore, if indeed this concept could be
considered as an alternative, I am sure it has to be applied and adapted
to the particular circumstance and constraints that exist in our
respective countries. Those of us who will be listening and participating
in the discussions in the next two days will have the opportunity to know
more about the issues which are on the table in this very important
Meeting. We have with us experts from NAM
member countries who have deep knowledge in this concept and its
application, and also policy-makers from NAM member countries who are in a
position to make decisions regarding the course their countries could take
on this issue. We hope that this meeting will provide the policy-makers
with clearer ideas of what could be done in their respective countries in
order to make the public utilities to serve their intended purpose
efficiently for the benefit of all, especially the people. We, from NAM CSSTC, are hoping to
see that the participants and experts of this Meeting will be able to make
very specific recommendations to the governments of NAM member countries
and the private sector, national as well as foreign, regarding the
desirability and, if so, the conditions of applying this concept of
public-private partnership. We are also looking forward to get
recommendations regarding what, if any, NAM CSSTC could do as follow-up to
organizing this Meeting in order for NAM member countries to obtain direct
benefits from our work programme, such as training and technical
assistance. Finally, I should like to take this
opportunity, on behalf of the Board of Directors of NAM CSSTC, to thank
the Director and Staff of IPA for their cooperative spirit and deeds which
has made the organization of this Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan to be so
successful. Last but definitely not least, I should also like to extend
our deepest thanks to the Government of Brunei Darussalam for funding this
very important project. Thank you.
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