Cabinet OKs MoU between India, Portugal on governance reforms

The Union Cabinet today approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Portugal on cooperation in the field of public administration and governance reforms.
The MoU will help in understanding the system of customer oriented public service delivery in Portugal with reference to rapidly changing environments in the area of public service management and processes in the Indian public service delivery system, leading to improved delivery in the country.
The MoU will be signed between Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), and Ministry of the Presidency and of Administrative Modernisation, Government of Portuguese Republic, an official release said.

The areas of co-operation under this MoU will include digital transformation of government, administrative simplification and process re-engineering, public service delivery, building and developing staff capability, sharing good governance practices in public administration and public grievance redress mechanism.
The forms of cooperation will include organisation of a senior consultative body and working sessions for ongoing discussions regarding cooperation and collaboration.
As part of its efforts in seeking international collaboration for initiatives in good governance and administrative reforms, DARPG has so far entered into bilateral MoUs with China, Malaysia, Singapore, France and United Kingdom and a trilateral MoU with Brazil and South Africa.

The recent MoU with Portugal is a step in this direction.
Similar MOUs with China and Singapore are under renewal or consideration in consultation with ministry of external affairs.