Attended by 150 delegates from some 100 companies, the workshop was conducted in the form of real time ’non-face-to-face video lectures’ to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Experts from EDCF*, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Asia Development Bank (ADB), and the Public Procurement Service explained the overall procurement process to help the companies better understand the international procurement systems of international organizations dealing with development funds including ODA.
The Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) was established by the Korean government in 1987 to promote economic exchanges with the developing world and to assist developing countries in achieving industrialization and economic stability through the provision of long-term, low-interest credit. Korea Eximbank manages the fund as its trustee. As of the end of October 2020, EDCF has supported 455 projects in 57 countries with a total of KRW 20.745 trillion.
On its part, Korea Eximbank’s EDCF expert presented on feasibility study and consulting and procurement procedures and precautions to be taken in EDCF projects in developing countries.
KOICA walked through its procurement procedures and strategies for Korean firms to reach out to the international procurement market funded by international development agencies.
ADB‘s Social Development Specialist explained precautions for participating in ADB's purchasing systems and infrastructure projects based on her field experience.
The Public Procurement Service introduced in detail its procurement support systems including the Global Processing Assistance Center (G-PASS) designed to assist Korean companies in making inroads into overseas procurement markets.
"As Korea's public procurement market is already saturated, we should turn our eyes to overseas procurement markets worth 10 trillion dollars. We hope that Korea’s SMEs and medium-large companies with excellent technology and product lines will be able to successfully enter the international procurement market funded by international development agencies such as multilateral development banks (MDB), based on the know-how they gained from this workshop," said Chairman Bang in his welcome remarks.
This workshop is the thirteenth on the topic of the "Workshop to Support the Entry of SMEs and Medium-large Companies into the International Procurement Market" which is being held at least once a year since the launch of the "International Procurement Support Council" in Korea in 2012.