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In the framework of the GfD Working Group IV, chaired by Tunisia and co-chaired by the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada (for regulatory reform), a Special Session of the Focus Group on Regulatory Reform took place back-to-back with a meeting of the OECD Working Party on Regulatory Management and Reform in Paris at the OECD headquarters on 25 April 2006.
This meeting was the second Special Session of the OECD Working Party on Regulatory Management and Reform. The format of the Special Sessions had been agreed by Arab participants at the first Regional Meeting of Working Group IV in Tunis in June 2005 to share know-how on implementing regulatory reform and to plan further co-operative efforts. The first Special Session took place in Paris on 28 September 2005.
Participants
14 policy-experts and high-level representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia as well as 29 representatives from the OECD Working Party on Regulatory Management and Reform from Canada, Korea, Denmark, United States, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey attended the meeting. In addition, Brazil (observer to the Working Party), TUAC (Trade Union Advisory Committee), the EC (European Commission) and the WB (World Bank) were represented. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Panagiotis Karkatsoulis (Greece) and by Mr. George Redling (Canada), co-chair of the focus group on regulatory reform.
Objectives
The meeting’s main objectives were to:
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Provide a forum for Arab and OECD countries to exchange their countries’ experience in the field of regulatory reform and share best practises and lessons learnt in this policy field.
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Provide Arab participants with the opportunity to present specific policy initiatives and action targets in Arab countries to improve the regulatory environment that have been or could be considered to form part of their country’s Action Plan
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Stimulate discussion on the feasibility and perhaps transferability of the identified pilot and country-based projects
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Discuss regional targets identified in this focus group, such as the regional charter on law-making quality
Policy Dialogue
Presentations and discussions at this back-to-back meeting focussed on Arab and OECD countries’ approaches and challenges to developing effective regulatory systems. The presentation from Arab countries in particular, focussed on concrete reform targets identified to form part of each country’s Action Plan within the following four regulatory policy issues:
Regulatory Impact Analysis
Presentations in Session 1 from Lebanon, UK, Canada and Turkey gave an overview on their countries’ experience with Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) and extended a discussion on prerequisites, important elements and strategies to perform RIA. Providing decision-makers with detailed information about the potential effects regulatory measures may have and thus contributing to accountability, transparency and consistency, RIA has been a priority issue on the reform agenda in many OECD countries and is increasingly becoming so in Arab countries.
Law-making Procedures
Presentations in Session 2 from Tunisia, Switzerland and Mexico dealt with concrete elements to facilitate law-making procedures, such as training of law drafters, on-line systems for laws and regulations as well as the institutional frameworks that oversee these processes. The presentation showed that great advances have been made to improve and implement these various transparency mechanisms in OECD as well as Arab countries.
Regulatory Frameworks for PPPs and Public Service Delivery
Presentation in Session 3 from Jordan, Peter Stein (Sweden) and from the OECD Secretariat discussed economic and legal instruments used to design efficient regulatory frameworks for public-private partnerships and public service delivery. The presentations analysed the benefits and challenges of PPPs as a tool for private provision of public services. Emphasizing that PPPs have many advantages in alleviating pressure on public budgets and increasing efficiency, they also pointed to limits of PPPs and made clear that transfer of risks should be achieved in a reasonable manner, ensuring the provision of basic requirements.
Regulatory Transparency in Public Service Delivery
Presentations in Session 4 from Morocco, Denmark and the United States discussed different techniques introduced in their countries that can contribute to improve regulatory transparency and change the administrative culture. Particularly techniques such as consultation, clear appeal processes, and the set up of an ombudsman were identified to create constituency and to build capacities for reform.
Future Work
Participants clearly expressed their appreciation of this exchange as a platform for future work, and their strong interest to elaborate regional and bilateral follow-up activities following the meeting, based on mutual interest of Arab and OECD countries.
Future work will concentrate on the implementation of the identified targets. In this regard the following issues have been considered to be relevant for the work of the Focus Group on Regulatory Reform:
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Hold a regional meeting in the framework of the Joint Task Force between the OECD Governance and Investment Directorate in Istanbul in November, following the Global Forum on Investment. This meeting will focus on PPPs and Infrastructure Financing.
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Organise country-specific capacity building workshops to explore different options of technical implementation and to facilitate national dialogue towards reform acceptance
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Design detailed implementation road-maps and/or action plan feasibility studies to facilitate partnerships with bilateral and multilateral assistance programmes.
Documentation
General Meeting Documents
Presentations
Background Documentation
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Background Document on Regulatory Impact Analysis in OECD Countries: Challenges for Developing Countries ( English)
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Background Document on Online Registers for Laws, Regulations and Business Formalities (English)
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Background Document on Oversight Bodies for Regulatory Reform ( English)
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Background Document on Public Consultation (English)
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Regulatory Policies in OECD Countries: From Interventionism to Regulatory Governance
Building an Institutional Framework for Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA): Guidance for Policy Makers
