JICA-GRIPS co-organized the high level forum from the 24^th of April to the 26^th of April, 2017, at GRIPS as one of the activities in the LEADING Asia Project.

More than 35 participants joined the forum from the following eight ASEAN countries;

• Cambodia,
• Indonesia,
• Laos,
• Malaysia,
• Myanmar,
• Philippines,
• Thailand,
• Vietnam

The main theme of the forum is “knowledge co-creation for leadership enhancement and capacity development of public organizations in Asian context”. All participants shared their experience in each country/organization and made discussions and dialogues in order to explore wide and deep insights of organization development in the public sector.

The first day, the 24^th of April 2017, each country made their presentation on the current status of their training and development programs especially for executives and their effort for improving and strengthening the current practices.

In the morning of the second day, the 25^th of April 2017, Japanese side introduced an idea of a new program for executives. At the introduction of the program, Mr. Masaei Matsunaga, Deputy Director General of Infrastructure and Peacebuilding Department, JICA, explained the concept of “policy modules” for executive development.

And then JICA/GRIPS made presentations on some examples of the new training materials based on Japanese and Asian experience. One of the materials was on the key issues for mass rapid transportations in Asian mega-cities based on Japanese and Asian experience. This material was explained by Professor Shigeru Morichi, Director of Policy Research Center and Academic fellow of GRIPS, who supervised the development of the module. The other was the issues on urban flood management and water resource management in Asia. Dr. Mikio Ishiwatari, Senior Advisor of JICA, made his presentation on this. Both emphasized on their coordination of multi-sector and multi-organization.

Professor Kiyotaka Yokomichi, Vice President of GRIPS, explained the idea of another policy module on “Regional/Rural Development” which will cover both the national level and regional level policies, and also cover the community level development issues. Several case studies in Japan and ASEAN countries will be included in the module.

The Open Forum had held in the afternoon of the 25^th of April 2017 at SOUKAIROU Hall in GRIPS. An audience of more than 130 people gathered in SOUKAIROU Hall.

At the beginning of the Forum, Mr. Satoshi Iwakiri, Vice President of JICA, made his opening address. After the opening address, Professor Akihiko Tanaka, President of GRIPS, made his keynote speech about “the top executives” especially in public sectors.

And the special guest speaker, Mr. Aquilino Pimentel Jr, who is the 23^rd President of the Senate of the Philippines, made his speech about the role and efforts of the Phronetic leaders, including Mr. Pimentel himself, during and after the era of Marcos tyranny to bring back the democracy. And he explained how they, the Phronetic leaders, introduced and established its decentralization system in the Philippines.

After the keynote speeches, we had a panel discussion on the role of the leaders for the organization development and how to enhance the ability of the leaders.

The following four panelists made the presentation how they, as the Phronetic leaders, innovated and transformed not only their organization but also the members of their organizations;

• Abdullah Azwar Anas

District Head, Banyuwangi District, Indonesia

• Benjamin Jr. De Castro Abalos

Former Mayor of Mandaluyong City, Philippines

• Woothisarn Tanchai

Secretary General, King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI), Thailand

• Youk Bunna

Secretary of State, Ministry of Civil Service / Director, Royal School of Administration (RSA), Cambodia

Mr. Anas                                                             Mr. Abalos

Mr. Tanchai                                                        Mr. Bunna

Senior Professor Masahiro Horie, Director of Executive Development Center for Global Leadership in GRIPS, has organized discussion as the moderator of the panel discussion. After the presentations of the panelist, Professor Horie coordinated active and extensive discussions within the panelists and also with the audience in the floor. The discussion covered widespread areas such as fostering the Phronetic leaders, anti-corruption measures under the Phronetic leadership and also the continuity of their policies.

The last session at the third day of the Forum, 26^th of April 2017, was also one of the highlight of the Forum. Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University, Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka made his presentation on Phronesis and made dialogue with the participants from the eight countries, including Mr. Pimentel. Their dialogue covered the wide range of topics about the Phronetic leadership from the leadership enhancement in the Asia of today to leadership enhancement and education/training for leadership.

The three-day program of the High Level Forum has concluded with the session of Dr. Nonaka.