Korea and four other Asian countries have gathered in Seoul to share their experiences in establishing online public procurement systems.

Korea's Public Procurement Service and the World Bank are jointly hosting the Asia Open Procurement Regional Meeting from May 18 to May 21. Over 30 people, including senior government officials from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Mongolia, are taking part in the workshop. Procurement professionals and officials from the World Bank are also attending the workshop.



During the workshop, the Public Procurement Service introduced Nurijangteo and Narajangteo, two online procurement service systems. Nurijangteo is designed to allow small- and medium-sized firms and non-profit organizations to take part in online procurements, such as bidding, signing contracts, making a request for a quote, making payments and conducting a reverse auction. All the processes are open to the public to encourage transparent transactions.

During the workshop, participants discussed trends in open procurement systems, including Korea's online procurement program and its openness, and prepared three-year plans to pursue open procurement policies in their countries.

"In the past, online procurement systems focused on opening information on bidding and contracts to the public to prevent potential corruption. In the future, it will concentrate on creating value by sharing procurement information and spreading online procurements to the private sector," said Kim Sangkyu, administrator of the Public Procurement Service.

By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos courtesy of the Public Procurement Office
jun2@korea.kr