South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference, 2017

The Fourth South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference will be held in Colombo and Kandy, Sri Lanka,from February 20 to 23, 2017.

The Conference will be hosted by Department of Public Finance, Ministry of Finance, Government of Sri Lanka, and is co‐sponsored by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.

The Conference is an annual learning, knowledge and experience sharing, and networking event for the Heads of Public Procurement Agency or Authority of the eight South Asian countries; it is a follow up on the three other Conferences held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in April 2011; Islamabad, Pakistan in March 2014; and in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November 2015. The Conference is an important feature of the evolving South Asia Region Public Procurement Network (SARPPN).

This Conference will continue to provide a mutual learning platform for the heads of public procurement and other key stakeholders in South Asia, with a view to continuously making their public procurement systems more effective in utilization of public resources. The theme of the Fourth Conference “E-GP in South Asia – Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges” is of particular importance as all countries in the region are at different stages of the introduction and operationalization of electronic procurement. E-GP is an innovative tool of public procurement which boosts performance in terms of efficiency, transparency, competition, fairness and value for money.

In addition, the participants will have an opportunity to learn from several world experts about the latest developments in public procurement, in general, and electronic procurement in particular.

During this Conference, the winners of the first ever South Asia Procurement Innovation Awards 2016-17 will be felicitated for their winning papers. Details are available at https://www.procurementinet.org/south-asia-procurement-innovation-awards-winners.

The event will be attended by about 100 participants. In addition to the heads of public procurement, participants will include over 60 high‐level government officials responsible for public procurement policymaking; oversight agencies; and representatives from several Development Partners active in Sri Lanka.