'72nd Anniversary of Gaechung' Public Procurement Service Non-Face-to-Face Commemorative Event

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Public Procurement Service (PPS) will hold a non-face-to-face commemorative event ahead of its 72nd anniversary on the 17th.

On the 15th, the PPS announced that Commissioner Kim Jeong-woo will share a video message with the procurement family in a non-face-to-face manner to hold the commemorative event.

The PPS traces its roots back to the Temporary Foreign Exchange Bureau established on January 17, 1949, which was responsible for foreign exchange procurement and aid material management. It expanded through the Foreign Exchange Agency (1955) and was reborn as the current Central Procurement Agency in 1961.

Currently, the PPS is responsible for the efficient procurement of materials and public facilities necessary for domestic economic development.

In particular, the scale of procurement projects, which was only 11.6 billion won at the time of its establishment, surged to 69.1461 trillion won as of last year.

In addition to its original duties of material and facility construction contract management, the agency expanded its capabilities by taking on tasks such as the National Stockpile Project (1967), government goods management (1971), construction management (1978), national policy construction total project cost management (1999), introduction of the multiple supplier system (2005), and state property management (2006).

The National Comprehensive Electronic Procurement System, 'Nara Marketplace,' launched in 2002, is also regarded as a major innovation that transformed the paradigm of government procurement. Nara Marketplace has served as a bridge between demand (public) institutions and private suppliers, becoming a backbone of the public procurement market.

The transaction volume, which was 36 trillion won at the time of launch, showed growth exceeding 100 trillion won last year.

Recently, following the operation of Nara Marketplace, the PPS launched 'Venture Nara,' an online mall exclusively for venture companies, to support startups and venture companies that find it difficult to enter Nara Marketplace to access the public procurement market through Venture Nara.

Based on this, Venture Nara recorded a purchase performance of 81.3 billion won last year, rapidly growing to twice the previous year's level.

The current focus of the PPS's procurement projects is the discovery and support of innovative products. This project centers on matching demand institutions with startups and venture companies to commercialize excellent innovative products not available in the market. It supports companies judged to have strong technological competitiveness despite lacking capital, providing a growth ladder.

In fact, through this approach, the PPS recently designated 159 innovative prototype companies and achieved matching results worth approximately 31.1 billion won, laying the foundation for innovative procurement.

Commissioner Kim Jeong-woo of the PPS said, “Since last year, the PPS has contributed to K-quarantine through the urgent procurement of masks amid the COVID-19 situation,” and added, “Going forward, the PPS will concentrate its capabilities to contribute to the government’s ‘Korean New Deal’ through ‘innovative procurement.’”

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