Korea Forestry Promotion Institute Selected as Public Institution Contributing to Public Procurement Promotion

2023 Public Procurement Promotion Conference Held
45 Public Procurement Contributors Awarded Including Presidential Citation

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young) announced on the 30th that it held the '2023 Public Procurement Promotion Conference,' an award ceremony recognizing excellence in public procurement, at EL Tower in Seoul. Started in 2001 and now in its 23rd year, the Public Procurement Promotion Conference is an event to reward and encourage outstanding public institutions and their employees who have worked to increase public procurement of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) products, as well as exemplary SME entrepreneurs.

The awards were given in a total of 3 categories with 45 honors: 4 outstanding public institutions, 31 public institution contributors, and 10 exemplary SME entrepreneurs. In the outstanding public institution category, the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute received the Presidential Citation, while the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority, Uiwang Urban Corporation, and Korea Childcare Promotion Institute each received the Prime Minister’s Citation.

These four institutions were selected for their excellent performance in purchasing SME products and technology development products among public institutions that met all five legally mandated procurement ratios, as well as their outstanding efforts to improve systems to increase procurement.

O Gi-ung, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the '2023 Public Procurement Promotion Conference' held on the 30th at EL Tower in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

In particular, the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute, which received the Presidential Citation, had a technology development product purchase ratio of 24.1% and a startup company product purchase ratio of 18.5%, actively supporting the entry of technology development and startup companies into the public procurement market. Additionally, they were recognized for their contributions to expanding SME product purchases through monthly monitoring of SME product purchase performance and the introduction of internal evaluations for priority purchase target achievements.

Along with institutional citations, individual awards were given to 31 public institution executives and employees who worked diligently on-site to increase SME product purchases. Ten SME representatives who strived to supply excellent products to public institutions through technology development and quality management were awarded the Ministerial Citation from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

O Gi-woong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, emphasized the importance of public procurement as an initial sales market for innovative products developed by SMEs, stating, "I hope public institutions will take the lead so that future generations and startup companies can grow by using the public procurement market as a stepping stone."

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