MINSK, 16 August (BelTA) – The world's best practices in government procurement will be discussed at a seminar in Minsk, head of the government procurement department of the Belarusian Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Ministry Pavel Zhukovsky said during an online conference on the BelTA website.
“A national seminar on government procurement will be held in Minsk on 3-4 September with the support of the WTO Secretariat and the EBRD. Leading government procurement experts will present the world's best practices and discuss development targets of the European Union and the WTO members and the way they combat corruption, digitalize their procurement practices and make procurement processes transparent and open,” Pavel Zhukovsky said.
Experts from the countries that joined the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement are also expected to attend the seminar. They will share their expertise and knowledge and tell the participations about the advantages of this agreement and the risks it poses to local markets.
Invitations to take part in the seminar will be sent to government officials and business people.
On 27 June 2018 Belarus received an observer status at the WTO Committee on Government Procurement and became the first country to get this status before joining the WTO. That status gives Belarus an opportunity to take part in discussions of the committee.
The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement is a plurilateral document regulating activities related to government procurement. At present, the agreement comprises 47 WTO members. Armenia is the only Eurasian Economic Union participating state that is party to the agreement. Russia and Kyrgyzstan are in talks on acceding to the agreement. Kazakhstan is set to embark on such talks in 2019. In line with an established procedure, Belarus can start talks on acceding to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement after it joins the WTO.
