The National Workshop on Government Procurement was held in Minsk
On September 3-4, 2018, the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus (MART) together with the WTO Secretariat and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) held the National Workshop on Government Procurement.
The workshop was attended by representatives of the WTO Secretariat, EBRD, government agencies, including employees of MART, representatives of operators of existing electronic trading platforms for government procurement, as well as business representatives.
The participants discussed the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (hereinafter – the Agreement), the potential benefits and challenges for the country associated with its accession, as well as the advantages of observer status in the WTO Committee on Government Procurement.
Reference: The Republic of Belarus received observer status in the WTO Committee on Government procurement on 27 June, 2018.
The seminar also discussed the main provisions of the Agreement and the requirements for national government procurement systems. Speakers noted that there are no significant, fundamental contradictions in the Agreement in the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, therefore all available issues can be removed in the negotiation process upon accession to the Agreement. At the same time, the observer status already gives the Republic of Belarus an opportunity to receive information on the Agreement, amendments and additions to it, on negotiations on accession to the Agreement of other countries on a permanent basis, which will eventually allow to determine the strategies of the negotiation process when joining the Agreement to ensure its effectiveness.
This event allowed to get acquainted with the best world practices in the field of government procurement, to understand the main trends in the development of this sphere. At the same time, the feedback received from business representatives and the problematic issues identified by them showed the direction to representatives of government agencies and operators of electronic trading platforms for further improvement of the order of government procurement in the Republic of Belarus.
