Foreword

The rules and practices that govern fiscal relations among different levels of government, such as their responsibilities for taxation, spending and debt management, have a bearing on economic efficiency and ultimately growth. Recent volumes of the Fiscal Federalism Studies series have added to the evidence linking intergovernmental fiscal relations and inclusive growth. Since subnational governments are involved in so many aspects of policymaking, it is natural to investigate how these governments can promote inclusive growth. While all members of the OECD’s Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government seek to improve the performance of their own institutions, the design of fiscal decentralisation is perhaps even more important for many “newly decentralising” countries in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. The Network has developed many broad lessons about “what works and what does not” in typical OECD economies, which it can share; at the same time, there are many country-specific factors that need to be taken into account.

The collection of analyses in this volume draw from the second meeting of the Roundtable of the Network on Fiscal Relations in Asia (RoNFRA), organised jointly with the Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2019. The second RoNFRA focused on how local government capacity building and performance improvement can contribute to inclusive growth in the context of decentralisation. These drivers, in turn, depend on various factors such as local fiscal and human resources, the commitment of local politicians and public officials, intergovernmental fiscal relations, fiscal institutions, political environments and their interactions with each other.

Beyond all of the individual chapter authors, we would like to thank KIPF colleagues Hyun-A Kim and John M. Kim; OECD colleagues Luiz de Mello and Edwin Lau; and ADB colleagues Claudia Buentjen and Hanif Rahemtulla for their active roles in facilitating the workshop. In addition, we would like to acknowledge the country panellists: Niño Alvina (Philippines); Daovala Phommala (Lao PDR), Bondi Arifin (Indonesia), Win Win Myat (Myanmar), Imelda Laceras (Philippines); Anchidtha Roonguthai (Thailand), Lourenco Pinto (Timor-Leste); Suresh Balakrishnan (Nepal); Batsukh Tumurtulga (Mongolia); Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian (Bangladesh); Chanthary Huy (Cambodia); Anna Bonagua (Philippines); Heru Wibowo (Indonesia); Preeta Lall (LOGIN Asia, India); Philipp Päcklar (Fiscal Network Bureau, Austria). Thanks are also due to Yunji Her (KIPF) and Lyora Raab (OECD) for their efficient help with administrative and logistical aspects of the workshop. For the publication, expert support was received from Julie Harris, who copy-edited the manuscript, as well as from Meral Gedik, who rapidly carried out the final typesetting. Finally, the workshop and publication were made possible through the generous financial support of the Korea Institute of Public Finance.