Closing ceremony

It’s always the same old story! Once you have caught up the rhythm of things, the conference is already at a close. The morning is devoted the ever-important conclusions of he rapporteurs, presided by Albert Hofmeister. Mr. De Vries exposes his views (in English), followed by Mr. Bozkurt (in French) and finally, Mr. Bonwitt, the Rapporteur General concludes with the substance of these three days of debates and what he has in mind for the future. Indeed, the conference may be almost over but that does not mean the story ends since the format of this particular conference calls for a three years follow-up on the issues and hopefully, concrete recommendations in a shape that still has to be defined (probably a white book). So, be on the look-out for an announcement in the near future.

After a short coffee-break and the announcement of the next conference (by Ms. Joanna Nurmi t(he beautiful Helsinki will be our host), the conference is officially closed by the Chairmain of TODAIE , Prof. Isbir and by Mr. Loretan, followed by the traditional exchange of gifts. Our last duty is a family portrait on the stairs of TODAIE and a relaxed crowd smile at the camera, say “Good-bye” to each others or “See you tomorrow” for those of us who will be taking the conference excursion.

For the IIAS team, it’s the only opportunity to see a bit of Ankara. We had a plan to visit several places but instead decided to wander in the area of the Roman Baths and ruins. Getting lost is probably the best way to take in a city’s atmosphere! And how different did the neighborhood looked compared to where we are staying! After a little bit of souvenirs-shopping; it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. We were the guests of Mr. Bozkurt who decided to take us to a park just outside of Ankara.  On the way there, we could witness how quickly the city is growing… Maybe a theme on the management of new urban  areas by the Public Services would be interesting for a future conference?

At Cruise Speed

Day 3 in the conference already and staff and attendees have finally settled into the rythm of things. The presentation of Mr. De Vries, one of the fellow rapporteurs, has drawn a large crowd. And when the rapporteurs and deleguates are not discussing the aid to governance and the governance of aid, they review their papers in the garden or gather in an improvised meeting under an umbrella (the Turkish weather has been really kind to us). The coffee break does not really mean it’s a pause as we can witness some of our deleguates sharpening their debates skills before they are back in session.

This afternoon, Mr. Rolet Loretan, Director General, also had a meeting to prepare the future: the 2010 Congress of Administrative Sciences. In March, the Excecutive Committee had decided to award the Congress to the Candidate of Indonesia: the island of Bali. A sizeable deleguation from different Ministries and our member Institution, Indonesia National Institute of Public Administration, was present in Ankara.

In the evening, all the participants were invited to the traditionnal Gala Dinner, which took place at the Ankara Palas, where Atatürk used to entertain his guests (charming old pictures are displayed in a gallery to remind us how fancy those parties were). Another great opportunity for everyone to network and discuss which of the Turks or the Germans will go through the semi-finals tonight.

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