Public Procurement Service Launches Next-Generation Nara Market Kickoff Meeting Riding the 'Metaverse'

On the 10th, the Public Procurement Service held a kick-off meeting for the next-generation Nara Market using the metaverse. Officials attending the kick-off meeting as individual avatars within the metaverse are discussing the direction of the next-generation Nara Market project. Photo by Public Procurement Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Public Procurement Service held a kickoff meeting for the next-generation Nara Market using the metaverse (extended virtual world).

On the 10th, Kim Jung-woo, head of the Public Procurement Service, along with executives and staff of the agency, next-generation Nara Market construction project operators, private experts, Nara Market user institutions, and procurement industry representatives?over 100 people from various sectors?met in a virtual world implemented through the metaverse to hold the kickoff meeting for the next-generation Nara Market.

The next-generation Nara Market construction project focuses on creating a user-centered work environment, preemptively adopting digital new technologies, and unifying the electronic procurement platform (Single Window).

The main purpose of the project is to completely redesign the outdated underlying technology of the current Nara Market and revamp the system with a customer experience (UX)-based interface to improve user convenience and stability.

The Public Procurement Service plans to invest a total project cost of 100 billion KRW over three years and aims to open the system in the first half of 2024.

Currently, Nara Market functions as a national integrated electronic procurement platform that handles all procurement processes online, including bidding, contracting, and payment, used by approximately 500,000 procurement companies and 60,000 public institutions. The annual transaction volume approaches 113 trillion KRW.

Kim Jung-woo, head of the Public Procurement Service, said, “The next-generation Nara Market is a large-scale national project that will lead the future 10 years of the public procurement market and the digital transformation era. Since a large national budget is invested and it has a significant impact on the national economy, we will focus the agency’s capabilities to ensure the project is successfully completed.”

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