The Asia-Pacific Public Policy Network (AP-PPN) is a professional organization established in 2016. The goal of AP-PPN is to form a consortium of public policy scholars in the Asia-Pacific region that can create a platform to support intra-regional collaboration, learning opportunities, conferences, and workshops to advance the development of the public policy discipline in the Asia-Pacific region.
Each year, AP-PPN organizes a conference to facilitate communication and scholarly exchange among academics, students, and practitioners interested in policy studies in the Asia-Pacific region. The 9th AP-PPN Annual Conference was held on April 25–27, 2024, at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China, under the theme “Transforming Asia: Fostering Governance and Policy Innovations for Technological, Entrepreneurial, and Sustainable Development.” The conference was attended by several public policy experts from various countries, including Prof. Michael Howlett (Convenor of AP-PPN), Prof. Xun Wu (HKUST Guangzhou), Prof. Kewei Xu (HKUST Guangzhou), Prof. M Ramesh (President of the International Public Policy Association), Prof. Benjamin Cashore (National University of Singapore), Prof. Jue Wang (Nanyang Technological University), Prof. Xufeng Zhu (Tsinghua University), and Prof. Namrata Chindarkar (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad).
At this year’s AP-PPN conference, we—Aditya Barus (a 2021 Public Administration student), Muhammad Maulidza, S.AP., MPM, and Jeffri Yosep Simanjorang, S.Kesos., M.Sos (advisor), had the opportunity to attend and present our research titled “Fostering Digital Inclusion: How Satisfactory Is the ‘Satisfying’ Predicate of Indonesian Electronic-Based Government System Initiatives?”
The AP-PPN Conference consisted of a series of events. On the first day, there was a workshop on “Applying VR to Behavioral Studies,” presented by Professor Xu Zhang (HKUST, Guangzhou). In this workshop, we—represented by Muhammad Maulidza—participated by sharing ideas and insights through a brief presentation titled “VR-Based Expeditions Research: Exploring Indigenous Democracies from Afar.” This was followed by a workshop titled “Text Analysis for Policy Research,” led by Professor Kewei Xu (HKUST, Guangzhou). Next was the workshop on “Improving Research Designs with LLMs,” led by Professor Xun Wu (HKUST, Guangzhou). After that, the final workshop we attended was “Framing and Storytelling in Public Policy Research,” presented by Professor M Ramesh (National University of Singapore).
On the second day, the conference began with an opening ceremony, followed by parallel sessions. We participated in the “Digital Governance and E-participation” panel to present our research paper and receive feedback from experts and conference participants. During the presentation, we—represented by Aditya Barus—received positive feedback from Prof. Zhuoni Zhang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou), the discussant for this panel. On the third day, the conference began with a panel discussion, followed by parallel sessions, and concluded with a closing ceremony.
We hope that the success of our paper—which was presented at an international conference—will inspire our fellow students and contribute to academic development and the improvement of public policy at both the national and international levels. We hope that in the future, more students from UNPAR’s Public Administration program will have the opportunity to participate in similar international conferences, broaden their horizons, and contribute on a global scale to the advancement of knowledge and innovation.
Bachelor of Public Administration Program
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences
Parahyangan Catholic University