ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday said that an important requirement of joining open government partnership (OGP) is to develop a national action plan (NAP) which would be the product of a co-creation process. “This would enable the government, civil society and the private sector to identify ambitious commitments and a roadmap to foster transparency, accountability and public participation in government processes,” he said while addressing the national workshop on OGP in Islamabad. The minister said, “OGP provides a domestic policy mechanism through which government and civil society establish an ongoing dialogue on the design, implementation and monitoring of the commitments made by them.” He further stated, “In order to develop the NAP, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has organized a number of awareness and consultative meetings in Islamabad, as well as the provincial capitals, with the support of various Federal Ministries, Provincial governments, Civil Society, Academia and other stakeholders. The preparations of the NAP are based on eight thematic areas: Fiscal Transparency, Access to Information, Public Officials’ Asset Disclosure, Citizen Engagement/Civil Liberties, Use of Digital, Access to Justice, Strengthening Accountability and Improving Business Environment.” Dar reiterated Pakistan’s firm commitment to the core principles of OGP. “We are happy to have voluntarily joined the multi-lateral OGP initiative, an international platform committed towards making governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens,” he said. The minister said, “The present government is firmly committed to transparency, good governance and fighting corruption. We have taken various administrative and legislative measures to this end, including Cabinet decision under leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to join OGP.” “We made this decision because we view OGP as a means for further institutionalizing good governance, accountability, and transparency. OGP also provides a formal framework and platform for further improving public engagement with citizens and the Civil Society on governance, reforms, transparency, accountability, and the government’s processes of policy designing, formulation and implementation,” he said. “It is because of these reasons that we submitted the Letter of Intent for Pakistan to join the OGP in November 2016, especially as Pakistan had already met the eligibility threshold for membership by meeting 15 out of the 16 criteria. I also had the pleasure of handing over the Letter of Intent to French President Francois Hollande during the OGP Global Summit in Paris in December 2016,” Dar said. The Finance Minister said, “In addition to OGP, our government has also taken other initiatives which demonstrate Pakistan’s firm commitment to transparency and good governance. In September 2016, the Government of Pakistan became a signatory to the OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. This is a significant milestone for the adoption of international best practices against tax evasion. We also signed, after three years long negotiations with Swiss Authorities, the revised version of ‘Exchange of Information’ in order to curb tax evasion.” “On the domestic front, Pakistan has made unprecedented progress in improving fiscal transparency through public availability of information and reliable fiscal reporting. Measures, in this regard, include a consultative and transparent budget-formulation process and improvements to public procurement rules in order to ensure competitiveness and transparency,” he added. “In addition, during the present government’s tenure, we have been publishing the tax directory of our Parliamentarians for the last three years. Pakistan is one of the very few countries in the world to publish such a directory. Published in Daily Times, July 28th 2017.