Public Procurement Service Expands Scope of Social Enterprises for 'Small-Amount Private Contracts'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The scope of social enterprises eligible to enter into small-sum private contracts in the public procurement market will be expanded.

The Public Procurement Service announced on the 15th that, starting from the 1st of next month, it will pilot small-sum private contracts (estimated price of 50 million KRW or less) for products produced by small businesses, small merchants, and social economy enterprises to expand their access to the public market.

Previously, the scope of small-sum purchase agency by the Public Procurement Service was limited to women-owned and disabled-owned enterprises. However, from next month, the agency scope will include social economy enterprises and small businesses and small merchants recommended by cooperatives for private contracts, aiming to support these companies in pioneering public procurement market channels.

However, private contracts recommended by cooperatives will be piloted until December 31, 2021, targeting the Korea Advertising Production Industry Cooperative and the Korea Printing Information Industry Cooperative, considering the business conditions of the enterprises.

Kang Kyung-hoon, Director of the Purchasing Business Bureau at the Public Procurement Service, said, “We expect that this improvement plan will expand the scope of small-sum private contracts, which are a major public sales channel for socially disadvantaged enterprises,” and added, “The Public Procurement Service will continue to cooperate organically with the Korea Federation of SMEs to support socially disadvantaged enterprises.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.