Indonesia shared innovative ideas on implementing the principles of good governance and transparency to country members of the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

In the opening of OGP Asia-Pacific Regional Conference here on Tuesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the country'€™s breakthrough in establishing Open Government Indonesia (OGI) had enhanced national efforts to reform its bureaucracy and public service delivery.

In front of some 600 delegates from 40 countries, he shared initiatives that had been advancing under the OGI program.

'€œIn the field of fiscal transparency, our efforts have been recognized by the International Budget Partnership through its Open Budget Index (OBI) Survey. Our OBI 2012 score, increased from 51 in 2010 to 62 in 2012, making Indonesia one of the top scorers in Southeast Asia. And on data transparency, our new invention is One Map Indonesia, which was made possible by the collective efforts of various government agencies.'€

In public services, he said, the government had initiated the Open Government Indonesia Public Service Competition, through which government institutions were measured based on their openness to the public. This competition also facilitated innovation in terms of how the public participated in open governance.

'€œTo accommodate citizens'€™ voices, we have utilized information technology to expedite two-way communication between governments and citizens. Inspired by the wide use of social media, we have improved and strengthened our programs.'€

Among the programs were '€œLapor'€ (to report), through which the government responds to citizens'€™ complaints, aspirations, and enquiries, as well as '€œSolusimu'€ (your solution), a more comprehensive channel for citizens'€™ ideas.

'€œUnder [Solusimu], we received many submissions [...] this is one of the ways in which the government reaches out to the archipelago'€™s remote locations. Some of the submissions have proven useful in policy making.'€

He also shared that on his part, he offered direct communication to citizens through PO Box 9949 and SMS 9949 and had joined Twitter and Facebook for faster interchange of ideas with netizens.

'€œTo my surprise, I have close to 5 million followers on Twitter. And I have also 2.7 million fans on Facebook. I also actively engage in YouTube,'€ the president said.

The efforts made people felt engaged in the decision-making process and had contributed to maintaining social and political stability over the past 10 years, he added.

As the current lead chair of OGP, Indonesia is determined to strengthen this global movement in line with Asia Pacific, which offered tremendous opportunity for growth of transparency, said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), who also sits in the current membership of OGP Steering Committee.

'€œAsia Pacific is the region where good governance is both domestically demanded and increasingly important to build a more inclusive architecture of regional cooperation.'€

'€œYet, with exponential growth in the economy, Asia Pacific is also weighed down by poverty, corruption, inequality, public unrest and increasing violent and non-violent political mobilization,'€ he said.

He cited that there had been growing demand for public participation and social and political accountability across the region.

'€œThrough OGP, governments and civil society can work together to ensure openness. OGP proves that the government is not monolithic, but full of reformers sharing aspiration of transparency and accountability to help fight corruption, spur innovation and economic growth and deliver development agenda.'€

OGP began in 2011 as a multilateral initiative of like-minded countries that include Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States and a number of civil society organizations.

After less than three years, it has transformed into a global movement involving 64 countries and around 200 civil society organizations.

'€œThe growth of OGP has captivated the global community. It is now changing the way we approach transparency and accountability. Many now realize that good governance is an inherent part of modern development. Open governance is the way, without it, development cannot happen,'€ Kuntoro said.

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