Korea Federation of SMEs Holds '2024 1st Public Procurement System Activation Committee' Meeting

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business held the '2024 1st Public Procurement System Activation Committee' on the 27th in Yeouido, Seoul.

The 'Public Procurement System Activation Committee' was launched to promote the activation of public procurement of small and medium enterprise products and to seek the development of cooperatives through the public procurement system. Chairman Lee Soon-jong of the Korea Federation of Furniture Industry Cooperatives serves as the committee chairman.

At this meeting, following the presentation of the '2024 Public Procurement Killer Regulation Innovation Plan' by Park Cheol-woong, Head of the Procurement General Division at the Public Procurement Service, discussions were held among the attending committee members on major current issues related to public procurement.

The committee members positively evaluated the government's regulatory improvement efforts, including the advancement of sanctions against unfair business operators and flexible and prompt unit price adjustment measures, as presented in the 'Public Procurement Killer Regulation Innovation Plan.'

However, they urgently suggested the introduction of a 'Public Procurement Type Delivery Payment Linkage System,' which applies the private market's delivery payment linkage system to guarantee appropriate unit prices for micro and small enterprises, as well as raising the MAS second-stage competition standard amount and the proposal lower limit rate. In particular, they requested additional institutional improvements, such as applying sanctions against unfair business operators, which uniformly restrict bidding qualifications, differentially according to the severity of the violation.

Chairman Lee Soon-jong stated, “While the government's series of efforts to improve public procurement-related systems are welcome, voices from the field still call for prompt improvements on longstanding issues such as guaranteeing appropriate unit prices and excessive restrictions on bidding qualifications,” adding, “The purpose of the system introduced exclusively for the public procurement market to maintain at least the manufacturing base and strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises should be actively understood, and the opinions of small and medium enterprises should be sufficiently reflected when designating the system.”