Medium-sized Business Community "Payment Linkage System Should Be Introduced in the Public Procurement Market as Well"

2023 2nd Public Procurement System Activation Committee Meeting Held

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector has called for the introduction of a payment linkage system in the public procurement market.

Kim Ki-moon, President of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business
Photo by Yonhap News

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced that it held the '2023 2nd Public Procurement System Activation Committee' at 11 a.m. on the 5th at the Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul.

The committee was launched last June to promote the public purchase of SME products and to explore the development of cooperatives through the public procurement system. Lee Soon-jong, chairman of the Korea Federation of Furniture Industry Cooperatives, serves as the committee chairman.

At this meeting, the results of a research project on the application plan for a public procurement-type payment linkage system, promoted by the Federation of SMEs, were shared. Along with this, the realities of the industry regarding public sector delivery unit prices and countermeasures were discussed.

The attending committee members pointed out that although there have been price increase factors due to the surge in raw material prices caused by global issues over the past few years, SMEs have faced difficulties in adjusting contract amounts due to the burden of adjustment requests and cost calculation expenses. Therefore, they strongly voiced the need to improve the contract amount adjustment system through the introduction of the linkage system.

The chairman stated, “Since the payment linkage system was implemented in the private market last October, it is necessary to introduce the payment linkage system in the public procurement market as well to enable the government to promptly adjust prices,” adding, “Along with promoting the public procurement-type payment linkage system, especially since next year is the designated year for competition products among SMEs, active efforts and feedback at the committee level are needed to resolve various public procurement issues.”