18 March
E-auctions: efficient tool of state procurement
A new stage of e-auction procurement has been launched in Belarus. The international seminar “Open auctions on the e-market place of the Russian Federation” dedicated to this relevant issue was held on 15 March in Minsk. The event was organized by the National Center for Marketing and Price Study on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus.
Upon opening the seminar Sergey Mikhnevich, Deputy Head of Export Promotion Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, doctor of economics, expressed confidence that the knowledge acquired during this seminar would allow domestic businesses to faster adopt e-auction procurement. He reminded the participants that in December 2010 within the framework of the Common economic space of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan the Agreement on state (municipal) procurement had been signed. The Belarusian parliament ratified it; now it is necessary to introduce changes in legislations of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, to switch to e-procurement system and to ensure treatment of economic agents from all the three countries according to national regulations.
The author of the seminar is the Project Director of the “Common e-market place”, JSC, Leonid Aldoshin, explained the key points of the new legislation of Russian Federation on state procurement relating to open e-auctions. Through practical examples he demonstrated how an e-trade operator of the “Common e-market place”, JSC, worked at the market place. This market place is one of the five selected by the Russian government for state procurement.
According to Leonid Aldoshin, e-auctions are the most efficient way for placing a state order. At present over 80% of trading is carried out through e-auctions. According to his data, average budget savings are 30%, and in some cases they are 60% from the initial price. The volume of state orders placed through e-auctions amounts to roughly RUB 3 trillions.
Based on experience gained at the Russian market place, Leonid Aldoshin demonstrated to the participants of the seminar advantages of e-auctions. Among those are ease of use and opportunity to participate in trading, high degree of transparency, convenient control over the whole procedure, budget savings and reduction of required time, lack of territorial restrictions, opportunity to participate simultaneously in unlimited number of auctions, and electronic document management.
During open auctions the electronic digital signature is used which ensures the integrity of a document (protects it from any alterations) and includes information about the authorized official (name of the organization, surname, name, e-mail address etc.), Leonid Aldoshin noted. The expert explained in detail to Belarusian suppliers how given the specific character of Russian legislation they would be able to operate on Russian market places.
According to Boris Smolkin, Director of the National Center for Marketing and Price Study, participation of Belarusian enterprises in e-auctions is one more way of promoting domestic goods and services on the markets of the countries – participants of the Custom union. It is planned to complete all arrangements aimed at introduction of e-auctions in our country before the end of this year. Prior to that, participants of e-auctions should learn to understand the way they work.
On 25 February 2011 the Authentication center was opened at the National Center for Marketing and Price Study (http://ca.ncmps.by), issuing public key certificates of the electronic digital signature, and starting from 1 March accreditation of customers (organizers and authorized organizations) and participants of e-auctions has been launched at the e-market place www.goszakupki.by.
Source: The National Center for Marketing and Price Study.