The second issue of the Journal of the Regional Hub of civil service in Astana presents a range of articles on civil service and public administration reform in member-countries and beyond.

It begins with the article by Art Daniels who discusses how the Government of Ontario in Canada has utilized a Quality Service System conducted through a customer survey called "Citizens first" and improved its service delivery. Sadygul Alymkulova analyses the activities of the Testing Centre of the Kyrgyz Republic, the use of polygraph and computer testing upon admission into civil service. Yuna Potemkina describes the transformation of types of civil servants’ responsibilities stemming from their professional activities and addresses the issues of holistic performance appraisal of civil service executives. Whereas Armen Yezekyan investigates the concept of civil service and describes various associated models. Dinara Minnigulova in her article analyses the potential of the ‘strike’ sub-institution in civil service and considers this sub-institution as a last resort for resolving collective disputes. Yernar Zharkeshov discusses the conceptual reasoning behind the introduction of senior civil service in Kazakhstan and describes certain measures taken to develop it further, whereas Rodney Dormer discusses recent research into performance measurement and management practices within a range of New Zealand’s public service agencies that has revealed six criteria by which organisational performance is defined and directed, namely: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, organisational capital and public capital. Svetlana Gaiduchenko draws attention to the inter-cultural relations in public administration, whereas Ihar Hancharonak in his article emphasizes synergetic potential in public administration with the dual notion of state and society, and the role of social media. Yuliya Glushenko describes the implementation of administrative-territorial reforms in Ukraine based on the research of financial provisions of local self-government. Valentina Gurievskaya discusses socio-psychological approaches on various levels of public administration, whereas Sergey Tsiganenko proposes "cost-efficient management".

In addition, the second issue contains information about the National Academy of Governance of Mongolia, provided by Enkhbayar Ganbold, and a review of the book "The health of the executive: formula of success" in which Ihar Hancharonak describes how a collective image of a modern healthy executive is presented.

We hope this second issue of the Journal will be of interest to you and that it will spark policy debates on the issues addressed by the above mentioned scholars and practitioners.

The first issue of the Journal of the Regional Hub of Civil Service presents commentaries and papers presented during the Global conference on civil service within the 6th Astana Economic Forum.

The first issue begins with Alikhan Baimenov’s speech where he draws attention to the historical milestones of civil service development in Kazakhstan and associated challenges at each stage of development and innovative solutions found. Professor Rolet Loretan explains how the IIAS serves as a worldwide platform for administration and identifies the main trends in public sector and administration. In the long run, Professor Loretan sees Kazakhstan as a hub for establishing the Central Asian and Caucasus group of Public Administration. Irakli Kotetishvili provides rather interesting insights into the recent transformation of public governance in Georgia. Alexander Turchinov highlights the stages of civil service development in Russia and current challenges. Aaly Karashev provides insights into the experience and innovations of Kyrgyz Republic on civil service reform through 11 steps of modernization. Caspar F. van den Berg, Frits M. van der Meer and Gerrit S. A. Dijkstra stress the recent movement towards equalizing civil service personnel policies and practices with those in the private sector. They argue that there is a trend towards managerial bargains. Dr. Matthew Stafford gives valuable insights into the United States executive civil servants training system by discussing executive core qualifications and competencies such as communications and problem-solving. Dr. Bolatbek Abdrassilov draws attention to the role and achievements of Kazakhtan’s Public Administration Academy on civil service training and its priorities according to the Strategy of "Kazakhstan 2050". Professor Yelena Kalyuzhnova focuses on the main areas of public administration research. Deniz Susar highlights the role of the important programme entitled United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) designed to help countries, especially in developing countries and those in economic transition, to respond to modern challenges. Professor Urkhan Alakbarov emphasizes the importance of human capacity building for sustainable development and security. Professor V. A. Shamahov emphasizes the modern requirements and success criteria of civil service training institutions in Russia while professor Tyurin E. A. discuss the topic of Eurasian state building.

We hope this first issue of the Journal will be of interest to you and that it will spark policy debates on the issues addressed by the above scholars.