Background
The main objective of the South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference is to enable the heads of public procurement and other key stakeholders in the eight South Asian countries to meet and learn from one another and from external resource persons. The knowledge thus acquired helps them to continuously make their public procurement systems more effective in utilization of public resources and ensuring quality and timely delivery of services. The Conference is held under the auspices of the South Asia Region Public Procurement Network (SARPPN) which is sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.
The first conference was held in Kathmandu in 2010, the second in Islamabad in 2014, the third in Dhaka 2015 and the fourth in Sri Lanka 2017 – all helped achieve the above mentioned mutual knowledge exchange and learning objective. In between these annual events, the World Bank facilitates via VC meetings of the SAR heads of public procurement for continuous exchange of knowledge and experiences through discussions of topics of interest.
The World Bank has also been sponsoring a country knowledge exchange programs for the SAR heads of public procurement. Such programs have already been successfully organized in Brazil and Mexico (2014), Australia (2016), and USA (2017). These knowledge exchange programs do not only provide an opportunity for the heads of public procurement to learn from the countries with well-advanced public procurement systems, but also from one another.
The Delhi Conference and its Theme
The Fifth South Asia Regional Public Procurement Conference being held in New Delhi on February 5-7, 2018, will continue with the SARPPN overarching goal of providing a learning and networking platform to SAR heads of public procurement and procurement professionals and to exchange their knowledge and experience of topics that would help them improve their public procurement systems.
The theme of the Fifth Conference “Public Procurement and Service Delivery” is appropriate and timely as the governments of all the countries in the region strive to improve their public procurement to ensure timely and quality delivery of public services. All eight SAR countries spend approximately US$550 billion equivalent on public procurement of goods, works and services, which eventually convert to public services. The Fifth Conference will deliberate upon key aspects of public procurement that help ensure delivery of these services; and identify and address areas that need improvement.
Host, Participants and Agenda
All India Management Association (AIMA), supported by the Government of India (GOI), represented by the Public Procurement Division (PPD) of the Ministry of Finance, is hosting the Conference.
About 100 participants, who include senior government officials responsible for public procurement and related fields, are attending. The representatives of Development Partners (DPs) active in South Asian countries and resource persons are among the participants.
South Asia Procurement Innovation Awards 2017
During the Conference, the SAPPN with ADB, WB, IsDB and Procurement iNET is holding a ceremony for honoring the winners of the South Asia Procurement Innovation Awards (SAPIA) 2017 will be honored for their winning submissions.