The Third South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference is going to be held in Dhaka from November 1 to 3 to develop online public procurement systems to ensure efficient public procurement service. Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning is organising the three-day international conference. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Bangladesh government are financing the event with the theme “Innovation for Sustainable Procurement Performance.” Government officials, representatives of development partners, private offices and civil societies of eight South Asian countries are expected to take part in the conference to share their knowledge in public procurement. Besides, representatives of Latin American Regional Public Procurement Network, the European Procurement Network and Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) are also expected to attend the conference to share their experience in procurement procedure. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will inaugurate the event at a city hotel, while Director General of CPTU Md Faruque Hossain will chair it. Speaking about the upcoming event, CPTU chief said, “Highest priority will be given on finding ways to make public procurement more functional with the use of online technology.” Utmost importance will be given to find out a solution on how to upgrade internet technology regarding public procurement, he added. “In our country, professionalism in public procurement is totally absent. So, this issue needs to be addressed. Besides, some framework agreements, public-private partnership in public procurement will also be discussed as well,” he also commented. The conference will also discuss ways how to set some measurement tools to determine performance in public procurement, CPTU officials said. About the expected outcome of the conference, Faruque Hossain said, “We’re expecting a timeline-based method as well as a modern executing method in public procurement will come out through this conference.” With these, a friendship and cooperation among SAARC countries in public procurement will be grown up as well, he also hoped. According to CPTU officials, use of ICT in public procurement is now on the rise in the country. Since 2011, electronic government procurement is taking place in Bangladesh. Up to July this year, 98 government organisations under 24 ministries are using e-GP for their procurement activities, which CPTU, officials claimed, has ensured transparency, accountability and open competition in public procurement as a large scale. The first edition of the conference was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2011 and the second one was held in Islamabad, Pakistan in March 2014.
