From September 3 to 6, 2024, Professor Lei ZHAI, Director of the MPA Center at Nankai University, along with PhD student Yazhuo HUANG, attended the 2024 Annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, Greece.

The theme of this year's conference was "Strengthening Democratic Governance and Improving Public Policy and Services," bringing together over 600 participants from more than 50 countries and regions. During the event, EGPA and the Asian Group for Public Administration (AGPA) co-hosted the Asia-Europe Public Administration Joint Session, where 20 representatives from countries such as China, the UK, Japan, Indonesia, and Romania participated, and six speakers delivered presentations on the conference theme.

At the joint session, Professor Lei ZHAI delivered a presentation titled "The Competitive Logic of Chinese Local Governments Based on Policymaking," exploring various competitive behaviors among government departments during task execution and offering suggestions for optimizing inter-departmental relationships. PhD student Yazhuo HUANG presented on "From Isomorphic Responsibility to Governmental Responsibility System: Explaining China’s Grassroots Overburden and Exploring Solutions," proposing institutional reforms to address the issue of grassroots administrative burdens.

During the conference, experts engaged in extensive discussions on governmental operations and social organization development models across different countries. Established in 1975, EGPA has grown to become one of the largest, most prestigious, and most influential academic conferences in the field of international public management.