Table of Contents

  • Southeast Asia (SEA) is one of the most dynamic regions in the world today. Rapidly evolving economies and societies, however, present new challenges for governments. For example, citizens and businesses alike have higher expectations: better and more efficient services delivered through both traditional and digital channels, greater transparency, and more inclusive decision-making processes.

  • The ten Southeast Asian (SEA) countries included in this publication together make up the world’s seventh-largest economy, with average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.3% in 2017. Economic and social progress in the past quarter century has been outstanding. However, governments in Southeast Asia need to respond to constant change in an increasingly complex world. This raises challenges in many policy areas including: fiscal management, bureaucratic efficiency, civil servant capacity, and openness and transparency.

  • Most of the data in Government at a Glance Southeast Asia 2019 were collected from government officials by the OECD via specifically defined surveys (Budgeting Practices and Procedures, Digital Government, Open Government and Open Government Data, and Strategic Human Resources). As such, they represent either official government statistics or the country’s own assessments of current practices and procedures. To the extent possible, OECD data collection instruments use standardised definitions and common units of measure. However, biases can occur in that countries may interpret and answer questions differently and/or may not answer the questions completely objectively. In general, the direction of the bias is known but not necessarily its extent. To try and minimise these biases, the OECD cleaned and verified the collected data by following up with countries when there were potential inconsistencies and outliers. This has been mainly achieved thanks to the OECD’s knowledge through previous work in the region and local presence in the countries under study. In addition, respondents have been asked to provide additional evidence to validate their answers which, in turn, have been verified with other external and additional sources whenever available. Data collection began in 2017 and in six countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (for the Budgeting Practices and Procedures survey data collection started in 2015 and was updated in 2018). Data collection began in 2018 in the remaining four countries – Brunei Darussalam, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam. All data were finalised after a thorough data cleaning process for all countries in 2018.

  • The main objective of the Government at a Glance series has been to provide reliable, internationally comparable data on government activities and their results in OECD member countries. By broadening the scope to other regions in the world, such as Southeast Asia (SEA), this publication allows countries to benchmark their own governments’ performance within the region and in relation to the OECD. In addition, it allows governments to track both their own and international developments over time and provides evidence to their public policy making. This publication covers the ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, as well as the four OECD countries in their proximity – Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

  • This Southeast Asian (SEA) edition of Government at a Glance collects new data on public sector management in the ten countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional grouping that promotes inclusive and innovation-led economic growth among its ten members. They are Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Myanmar; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand and Viet Nam. Comparisons to four OECD countries in the neighbourhood (Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand), as well as to the SEA and OECD averages, offer policy makers new evidence to improve decision making and provide better public services. The data in this publication have been collected to better understand the current governance situation in SEA countries, as well as to underpin learning from each other and from OECD countries.