Vol. 34 Nos. 3-4 (July-December 2013)
Government (Institutions...)
(From page 22)
Lessons on Policy Transfer: The Philippine
Experience
In her presentation,
Dr. Minerva S.
Baylon highlighted
the intricacies
and challenges
of policy making
and policy transfer
in the context of
globalization.
She indicated
that recent shifts
in globalization imposed challenges to national
governments, and one of which is on policy transfer.
One of the examples of policy transfer is on the
privatization of public services. New models for
development, including equitable growth, are being
adopted by the Philippine government, with focus
on the market economy approach. The resulting
privatization of public services yielded positive
outcomes, particularly in the infrastructure and
communications sector. However, Dr. Baylon said
that while this type of reform earned the government
revenues, they do not guarantee reliability nor
sustainability. Instead, government institutions face
the problem of non-recurring proceeds and nonperforming assets. Policy formulation becomes
vulnerable to political manipulation, and less likely to
undergo multi-stakeholder consultation. Dr. Baylon
presented the case of the Electric Power Industry
Reform Act in the Philippines, which she considered
one of the questionable deregulation policies, to show
the implications of policy transfer to the legislative
and executive units of the government, and as an
attempt to determine the different factors that affect
and shape policy transfer. Based on the results of
the case study, Dr. Baylon showed how external
institutions such as intergovernmental organizations
and private companies molded policies as agents
of policy transfer. Results of her study showed
that mechanisms for accountability suffered from
the apparent overlapping of functions between the
executive and legislative powers of the government.
EROPA Bulletin
23
Dr. Baylon noted that conditions imposed by
different international financial institutions (IFIs)
most significantly affected the said law. Thus, she
recommended that the government should be cautious
in negotiating with IFIs and entering into foreign
policy agreements that require severe conditionality.
She added that “political capture” may also remain in
the long run without effective political systems and
institutions to properly address policy transfer. She
recommended that government institutions should
be able to better appraise the context where in policy
transfer is taking place. When asked on how to
leverage the position of the Philippine government
on IFIs, Dr. Baylon said that a strong stand against
the many conditions imposed by IFIs and bilateral
agencies is needed to confront the problems associated
with deregulation of fiscal policies.
Compared Study: Science and Technology Budget
Indonesia and ASEAN
In his presentation,
Mr. Syahrul
Aminullah
discussed the
investments made
by the Indonesian
government
on science and
technology, and
compared its budget
allocation in this
field with that of
other ASEAN member countries. Mr. Aminullah
explained that the Indonesian government allots about
0.08% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the
science and technology sector. This budget allocation
was found to be shared among 33 ministries, 7
government