Korea's Public Procurement Service (PPS) building in Daejeon / Korea Times file

Procurement experts from around the world gathered in Korea to share global trends and best practices in government procurement, at the International Public Procurement Workshop 2024 held at KINTEX in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, from Wednesday to Friday.

As the workshop, which started in 2016, is co-hosted for the first time in Korea with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it is expected to strengthen Korea's cooperation with Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.

The event this year is being attended by five major international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, IDB, the Asian Development Bank, and UN. Procurement officials from 20 countries worldwide, including Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, and the Philippines, are also participating to share global trends in public procurement.

Under the title "Gaining New Insight on Public Procurement," the workshop will focus on the latest global procurement trends and enhancement of procurement infrastructure for strengthening the role of central procurement agencies.

Korea's Public Procurement Service (PPS) especially aims to increase international awareness of the nation's government procurement systems, by introducing its procurement policies for SMEs and presenting the present and future of its e-Procurement.

Additionally, PPS is running guided tours at the Korea Public Procurement Expo 2024 for participants, actively promoting quality procurement products and their suppliers.

"The workshop is co-hosted for the first time with the Inter-American Development Bank, which has close ties to procurement markets of the Americas," PPS Administrator Lim Ki-keun said.

"We will continue to maintain close networks with international organizations, development banks, and major procurement agencies, endeavoring to grasp global trends in public procurement and seek opportunities for our companies to enter overseas procurement markets," he added.