A three-day international conference on public procurement is likely to begin from November 1 next, says Planning Ministry in a statement yesterday.
The conference is going to be organised at a time when Bangladesh suffers from lack of professionalism in public procurement.
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), a unit within the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the ministry, will host the conference titled “Third South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference in Dhaka”.
The main objective to hold such an international conference is to develop public procurement systems, using online technology to ensure an effective and efficient public procurement service.
The theme of the programme is “Innovation for Sustainable Procurement Performance”. The World Bank, Asian development Bank and the government of Bangladesh will finance the event.
Government officials, representatives from development partners, private offices and civil societies of eight South Asian countries are expected to participate in this conference to share their knowledge in public procurement.
Besides, representatives from 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.
CPTU Director General Md Faruque Hossain said how public procurement can be more functional with the use of online technology.
The utmost importance will be given to finding out a solution of how to upgrade internet technology in the field of public procurement, he said.
According to CPTU, since 2011, electronic government procurement is taking place in Bangladesh. Till July of this year, 98 government organisations under 24 ministries used e-GP for their procurement activities.
The First South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference took place in April 2011 in Kathmandu of Nepal and second in Pakistan in March 2014.
