Sayyid Zaki Bin Hilal Al Busaidi, CEO, Institute of Public Administration shares his thoughts on the forthcoming Euro MENA Dialogues on Public Management conference. Mayank Singh reports
 

Can you give us some information on the Euro MENA Dialogues on Public Management Conference? Oman will host the Euro MENA Dialogues on Public Management from October 24 to 27, 2016. The conference is a joint initiative of the Aix Marseille University (AMU), European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) and Middle East and North Africa Public Administration Research (MENAPAR), and is co-organised by the AMU, the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), Sultanate of Oman, and the BIPA, Bahrain. All the papers presented during the conference will be related to public administration, which is essentially management related to the government.
We expect participation from inside and outside Oman from the three regions of Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The first day of the conference will deal with best practices in public management in the Middle East and North Africa, the second and third day will be devoted to the presentation of research papers. The fourth day is an entertainment day, wherein the participants will have an opportunity to see some parts of Oman and get closer to the tradition and culture of the country.
What are the aims and objectives of the conference and how will it help Oman in finding solutions in the field of public administration? 
The aim of this conference is to create a dialogue between the experts of the three regions on public management, we can network and exchange ideas, discuss challenges and to find the best solutions.
Oman selected the title of this conference “Modernisation of Human Resources Management and Performance of Public Organisations” and we coordinated with some important government units in Oman. The major challenges that we face in the field of public administration are issues related to HR, measuring the performance of the public units and the need to improve the performance of government organisations. I am sure that by the end of this conference we will have a number of researches related to these issues and we can work with other government organisations in finding solutions to these issues.
One of the elements is to bring in KPIs in government functioning. The citizens always have a high expectation from the government and hence our endeavour is to provide good services in a short time and to find better ways of providing this service.
What are the reasons for Oman hosting this conference?
We thought that Oman should take the initiative to host such an event. One of our objectives is to let these people visit Oman and see how the government works here, and then to create a networking opportunity between the researchers here and those working in those countries.
Can you give us a brief background on the Institute of Public Administration?
The Institute was established in 1977, and its role is to uplift the capabilities of government employees. After the Blessed Renaissance of 1970, it was important to have a government body that is assigned with this task. We have three major roles here – imparting training, conducting research and third consulting. Our courses are mainly focused on management, but we also have different programmes related to finance, legislation and anything related to improving the performance of the government.