Procurement experts flock to Korea for IPPW 2024

South Korea’s Public Procurement Service said Wednesday it is hosting the International Public Procurement Workshop 2024, an international gathering of procurement experts from around the world, this week in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.

Under the title of “Gaining New Insight on Public Procurement,” the two-day event will kick off Thursday at the Kintex convention center.

This year, the event will be co-hosted with the Inter-American Development Bank or IDB in order for Korea to boost ties with Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.

This is the first time that Korea has hosted the event since its launch in 2016.

Officials from five international organizations, including the IDB, the OECD, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN, will be attending the event, with procurement officials joining from 20 countries such as Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, and the Philippines.

Participants will share global procurement trends during the event. They will also discuss ideas on improving procurement infrastructures as part of state-led procurement agencies’ measures to strengthen their roles.

In particular, Korea’s PPS will highlight the country’s procurement policies for small and mid-sized companies. The agency also plans to showcase its e-procurement services with the aim of increasing global awareness of Korea’s cutting-edge public procurement system.

The PPS will also run guided tours of the Korea Public Procurement Expo 2024, a local public procurement expo, to promote local procurement companies and their services.

"The IPPW 2024, co-hosted for the first time with the Inter-American Development Bank that has close ties to procurement markets of the Americas, is a meaningful event," Korea’s 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,” Lim added.