Kazakhstan and Korea to cooperate in public purchasing

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - November 8, 2016, in Astana Kazakhstan Finance Ministry officials met with representatives of Public Purchasing Service of South Korea. The meeting aimed at learning the system of electronic public procurements of the Republic of Korea, and signing the Memorandum of Mutual Cooperation in Public Procurements, as reported by the press service of the Ministry of Finance of RK.

This action has been conditioned by the high level of development of the system of electronic public procurements in Korea. All procedures of public procurements in South Korea, including bidding, contract awarding, delivery and payment are conducted through the KONEPS system (Korean on-line electronic Procurement Service).

 

The arrangement of mutual cooperation between Kazakhstan and Korea in public procurements was reached during the 2nd Electronic Public Procurements Conference of the Asia-Pacific Region in Seoul in October 2016.

In Kazakhstan the system of public procurements is regulated by the Public Procurements Law which was adopted as the 56^th step of the Nation's Plan and put in force on January 1, 2016. The law is to create an effective system of state purchasing with account for the law enforcement practice and international experience.

 

According to the improved legislation the entire procedure of public procurements is conducted in electronic format. This innovation simplifies the procedure of public procurements because all necessary documents provided by potential suppliers, and considered by organizers of public procurements are created on the web portal. This measure ensures openness and transparency of the process. Another innovation is preliminary discussion of drafts of technical specifications. Now it is mandatory that before being approved the technical specification is subject to discussion. This measure allows potential suppliers to study the draft of the technical specification in advance and make a complaint to the customer or monitoring bodies in case of  anti-competition conditions  present in the draft agreement.

The tender and auction procedure has been simplified. Applications for tender and quotation are made all together in order to reduce tender phases and exclude abuse of officials of the customer.

On October 19, 2016 by unanimous vote during the regular meeting of WTO Committee of Public Procurements Kazakhstan's official application for the observer status was approved.

At present (on November 7-8 2016) in Astana the RoK Ministry of Finance together with the WTO Secretariat and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hold the National Seminar on public procurements. During the seminar representatives of public organizations, business communities and state bodies are getting acquainted with the provisions and requirements of the Public Procurements Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO).