Organized by UNPOG in cooperation with the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics (CCCPE), the Workshop on Building Government Management Capacity for Transparent Local Governance was held from 8 to 9 December 2008, at the Xixi Friendship Hotel in downtown Beijing, China. Based on findings of the research paper produced by Professor Soonhee Kim at Syracuse University, the workshop identified and explored major issues and challenges related to local government capacity in the region of Asia, especially in the context of the necessity to increase public transparency and accountability. 

Drawing participation from five different Asian countries including China, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam, this small expert workshop gathered 12 local governance experts in academia, research institutions, and municipal governments, each of whom delivered a country presentation on identified good practices and their contextualized national settings. The two overarching themes of the workshop were (i) strengthening local capacity through rule of law and accountability; and (ii) citizen participation and empowerment through enhancing local capacity. Specific issues which served the topics of discussion session on Day 2 included the following: (1) the main characteristics of the innovation and problems/ issues dealing with transparency and local capacity; (2) the stakeholders involved in designing, implementing, and assessing the local government management capacity; (3) tangible results of the innovation related to local government management capacity and groups which it benefited the most; (4) challenges encountered the process of conceiving and implementing the innovation and how they were overcome; (5) elements which could allow such innovation to be transferable into other countries in the region. Held in convivial atmosphere, the interactive group discussion rendered productive outcomes, details of which were summarized into a wrap-up presentation at the conclusion of the workshop.