MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – First Deputy Director of the National Marketing Center of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexander Zapolsky presented a Belarusian digital government procurement system project at an international seminar on digital government development arranged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, representatives of the National Marketing Center told BelTA.
The modernization of the government procurement system was discussed from the point of view of Belarus' efforts to join the WTO and work to develop digital government in the country. The compliance of Belarusian legislation on government procurement with the WTO government procurement agreement was discussed. Further steps to introduce digital procurement procedures based on the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and open data in Belarus were determined. A digital (open) government will contribute to the improvement of quality of government services as a whole and the sphere of government procurement, in particular, by making government contracts more transparent and effective. Operational costs will be reduced for buyers and sellers.
Alexander Zapolsky talked about national goals, key problems and ways to resolve them in order to make the transition to the digital type of government procurement in full. The Belarusian expert also presented a specification of requirements for developing a state information and analysis system and possible ways of introducing the system in Belarus.
The National Marketing Center of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of operating www.icetrade.by – the website where information about government purchases and purchases using proprietary resources is released.
