By invitation from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM)—through the participation of Dr. Maria Teresita M. Semana, Director of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS)—represented the Philippines in the ADB International Procurement Workshop (IPW) in Seoul, South Korea which gathered public procurement experts across 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Held from September 25-27, 2024, the ADB IPW was organized in collaboration with the Republic of Korea’s Public Procurement Service Korea (PPS), aimed at enhancing the participants’ understanding of Korea’s public procurement infrastructure. Particularly, the three-day event delved into topics such as Korea’s key procurement policies, implementation of electronic procurement system, digital government strategies, procurement programs for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and various innovation efforts, among others.
Serving as an avenue for potential collaborative partnerships among high level procurement policymakers, the event was first of its kind in Asia and the Pacific, forming part of ADB’s development assistance project for international development cooperation.
The ADB IPW provided the PS-DBM—through its PhilGEPS Group—with operational opportunities to adopt global procurement insights and current standards through lectures, case studies, group discussions, presentation of outcomes, and bilateral meetings that fostered knowledge sharing and networking. The emerging challenges in advancing the region’s effective and sustainable public procurement infrastructure were likewise tackled, alongside the countries’ best practices.
PS-DBM’s participation in the event is especially significant now as it is poised to launch the country’s own Electronic Marketplace, or the eMarketplace, to serve as the government's official e-commerce platform for the procurement of various goods. The eMarketplace is an additional feature of PS-DBM’s modernized PhilGEPS that will enable procuring entities to search, view, compare, select, and procure common-use supplies and equipment (CSE) and eventually non-CSE items from competent and reputable suppliers, anchored on the passage of the Philippines’ New Government Procurement Act.
Earlier this year, on April 17, PS-DBM also took part in the PPS-sponsored International Public Procurement Workshop (IPPW) which centered on the latest global trends in government procurement before a panel of global procurement experts.
PS-DBM, under the leadership of Executive Director Genmaries S. Entredicho-Caong, actively takes part in these engagements not only to develop the country’s relations with international communities in the field of procurement but also to reinforce its institutionalization of transformative reforms in this age of digital transformation. | October 4, 2024/GD