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s the chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) for 2013 and 2014, Indonesia will hold the first OGP Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali between May 4 and 7.

Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4) chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, whose unit is responsible for organizing the conference, said the gathering would aim to improve communication among stakeholders on how to encourage more public participation in
government.

'€œThe OGP was developed not only to understand how to better develop and govern a country democratically, but it was also developed to help increase public participation in governance,'€ Kuntoro said in a press conference on Tuesday.

He said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wanted to set up a regional conference that would involve more Asia-Pacific countries in the OGP.

On May 6, Yudhoyono is expected to officially open the conference by giving a keynote address. Other notable figures from participating and non-participating countries will also make speeches.

The OGP was first established in 2011 by eight countries, including Indonesia, as a multilateral initiative aiming to secure concrete commitments from government to promote state transparency, encourage citizen participation in tackling corruption and harness new technology for governance.

The OGP now has 63 member countries, 54 of which have developed and published action plans. The remaining nine are expected to present their proposed action plan during the Bali conference.

Kuntoro said that UKP4 expected around 500 representatives to attend the conference from the governments of 63 countries, civil society groups, nongovernmental organizations and private sector stakeholders.

Deputy chairman of UKP4, Tara Hidayat, said of 468 representatives that had confirmed their attendance, 160 were with civil society groups and NGOs. Thirty representatives from the private sector are also confirmed to attend.

As of Tuesday, the only head of state confirmed was Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama. South Korean President Park Geun-hye was scheduled to attend but cancelled due to the Yellow Sea ferry accident.

UKP4 is still waiting for confirmation from Filipino President Benigno Aquino III and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. During the conference, participants are expected to share their experiences in developing democracy in their respective countries.

As a way of demonstrating Indonesia'€™s commitment to improving public participation, Tara said that several agencies representing Indonesia would put up websites such as satulayanan.net.

'€œSatulayanan.net is a pretty new website developed in 2013 by the government to increase transparency between the general public and public service institutions. We wanted to make it easier for people to understand how to get services and also encourage the public to monitor and report on inefficient services,'€ she said. (fss)