Jordan Times
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Preparatory meeting for
conference on Good Governance slated for Sunday
AMMAN (JT) — Eleven Arab ministers will meet on Sunday to prepare for the next
month's conference on the Good Governance Initiative Programme to be held at the
Dead Sea.
Participants at the meeting — Arab ministers of justice, finance and civil
service, representatives from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) and the UNDP, and ambassadors of donor countries — will
discuss the mechanisms and agenda of the initiative, endorse the initiative's
final formula, review the initiative's documents and name the Arab countries'
representatives for the conference.
The initiative is organised in cooperation with government, the OECD and the
UNDP.
The initiative, which will be executed under a three-year programme — beginning
with the participation of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Dubai —
seeks to find ways to ensure the success of reform projects through
comprehensive vision and clear policies on administrative reform and its
relation with economic development. It also seeks to improve living standards,
bring about cooperation between Arab countries and states that have succeeded in
upgrading their general administration.
In a joint press conference held yesterday by Minister of Information and
Communications Technology Fawaz Zu'bi and Minister of Justice and Minister of
State for Cabinet Affairs Salah Bashir, the latter said the initiative depends
on six reform aspects. Each aspect represents an experiment that achieved
success at the national level in each of the six countries.
These aspects cover civil service and impartiality in Morocco, e-government in
Dubai, good governance for public money in Egypt, management of public resources
in Tunisia, modernisation and development of the judicial system in Jordan and
media and civil community in Lebanon.
Bashir added that the six countries were selected based on the availability of a
suitable environment for each aspect, noting that other Arab countries are
invited to participate and benefit from the results. He said the initiative
would depend mainly on Arab experts and those from advanced countries that will
participate in the management of the six aspects.
Zu'bi said that the six countries would seek to broaden their participation in
the initiative, noting that 11 Arab countries are to attend the preparatory
meeting that will take place in Amman on Sunday.