The results of the ‘Regulatory Policy Outlook 2021 Report’ published by OECD is announced by an online meeting organized by cooperation of Argüden Governance Academy and TUSIAD.
This news was published in Milli Gazete on April 19th, 2022.
The Regulatory Policy Outlook 202 prepared by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) was discussed online at the 'Public Decision-Making Processes Conference'.
PUBLIC SECTOR DECISION QUALITY IS CRITICAL FOR IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE
The conference organized by Argüden Governance Academy for private sector, public and civil society managers was held in cooperation with TÜSİAD and the contributions of OECD. The opening speeches were made by Murat Özyeğin, Vice-Chair of TÜSİAD Board of Directors, and Dr. Yılmaz Argüden, Chair of Trustees of Argüden Governance Academy. In the meeting, the culture of good governance in public regulations was discussed in a multidimensional and comparative way for Türkiye and other OECD countries.
Nick Malyshev, Head of the OECD Regulatory Policy Unit and a member of the Argüden Governance Academy Advisory Board took part as the keynote speaker at the conference. The panel was moderated by Argüden Governance Academy Project Director Dr. Fatma Öğücü Şen, Sabancı University Faculty Member Emeritus Prof. Dr. Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, Hacettepe University Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Muhittin Acar and Argüden Governance Academy Academic Board Member Dr. Erkin Erimez evaluated the developments since the previous reports of the series published in 2015 and 2018.
Murat Özyeğin: “The market economy, which is valid in all developed countries without exception, envisages the rule of law and a rule-based organization. Rules needed to regulate life; rules create institutions that will implement them effectively and efficiently.”
In the study “Building the Future with a New Perspective”, which we shared with the public last year, we emphasized that the welfare of countries is now based on intangible resources. Human development and empowerment; science-technology-innovation; institutions and rules make up these intangible resources. We call these three elements “people, science, and institutions” for short. The full implementation of the principles of check and balance mechanisms, transparency, consultation, and merit in our public regulation policy is of great importance for the establishment of reliable and inclusive institutions and rules.”
Dr. Yılmaz Argüden: “Improving the quality of public decisions is critical for economic growth, reducing unemployment, and increasing public trust.”
In the opening speech of the meeting, Dr. Yılmaz Argüden stated that the Academy adopts a 'triggering continuous learning’ approach in all of its research and stated that the Academy sees it as a responsibility to bring the results of the OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook Report in 2015 and 2018, and then 2021, to the public's knowledge in Türkiye. Reminding that the OECD determined twelve criteria to increase the quality of decision in the public sector in 2012, Dr. Yılmaz Argüden said, “The public sector establishes regulations for purposes such as public health and safety, social justice, and fair competition. While designing these regulations, three points need to be considered carefully that effects the quality of the decisions. First, regulating without impact analysis is just like making an investment without a feasibility study. Secondly, conducting an informed, inclusive, and participatory consultation enables the agent (public administration) to better understand the principals’ (citizens) expectations and builds trust for public institutions. Finally, ex-post analysis accelerates institutional learning and enables improvements. A study prepared for Sweden shows that 10% improvement in decision quality will improve income per capita by 5%. Adopting good governance in the public sector increases the quality of regulation, accelerates development, increases total factor productivity and national income, and reduces unemployment.”
Nick Malyshev: “Report results show that Türkiye has room for improvement in public decision making and regulatory processes.”
Nick Malyshev stated that the Report comparatively presents the practices of countries on stakeholder engagement, regulatory impact analysis and ex-post evaluations, which are important regulatory tools. Emphasizing that the quality of the regulations will only be possible with the use of good governance approaches in the regulatory processes, Malyshev said, “When the stakeholders are included in the regulation processes in an inclusive way, the resulting decisions are considered fairer. The latest evaluation Report points out that there is room for improvement in all three areas for Türkiye.” In his speech, Malyshev also talked about new trends in regulations and said: “With the COVID-19, we feel the impact of globalization deeply. It gave importance to digitalization and international cooperation more than ever. We expect the regulations prepared to address emergencies may create an ex-post evaluation wave in the future. It seems that Türkiye can benefit from the experiences in different countries for improvement in public decision processes.”
Panel moderator Dr. Fatma Öğücü Şen shared information about Türkiye's position on regulatory processes based on stakeholder participation in public decision processes, regulatory impact analysis, and ex-post analysis.
The research is based on responses from public authorities to the OECD survey. According to the Report, when compared to 2015, 2018 and 2021, Türkiye remained at the same point or showed a decline in all three areas compared to the previous years. While there is no information about our country in stakeholder participation in primary laws, it ranks 34th out of 38 countries in stakeholder participation in secondary regulations, with the same score as it was in 2018. However, Türkiye could not show any improvement in terms of regulatory impact analysis (for secondary regulations) compared to 2015 and 2018. With the progress of other countries, our country ranks the last in this field in the 2021 Report. While Türkiye ranks 36th among 38 countries in the 2018 Report in ex-post evaluation, it ranks last in both for primary laws and secondary regulations in the 2021 report.
