PM Narendra Modi takes governance tips from Malaysian PM Mohammad Najib Abdul Razak

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought tips from his Malaysian counterpart on improving governance and streamlining Centre-private partnership, marking a departure from the advisory role that India often takes in promoting electoral reforms in the developing world.

Modi, keen to overhaul the county’s performance management and evaluation system (PMES) on Wednesday discussed with Mohammad Najib Abdul Razak ways to replicate the globally acclaimed Malaysian Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU), officials told ET from Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw.

PEMANDU, put in place by Razak in 2009, oversees implementation and progress of the ‘Government Transformation Programme and the Economic Transformation Programme’.

Razak is also its chairman. Razak was the second leader that Modi met for a bilateral on the sidelines of the India-ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

Officials said Modi wants to replicate this model to revamp PMES. Modi is also keen that it should be extended to projects supported by the government or supported in some form by the government but being executed by the private sector. Modi evinced his interest in PEMANDU when Razak telephoned him on October 21. Earlier, Idris Jala, PEMANDU chief executive and Minister without Portfolio in the Razak Cabinet, had made a quiet trip to India and met the PM.