"3 Trillion Won by 2030" Public Procurement Service to Expand Scope of Innovative Product Procurement

The Public Procurement Service is set to expand the scope of the public procurement system for innovative products.

On September 11, the Public Procurement Service announced its plan to strategically enhance the use of public procurement and increase the scale of public procurement for innovative products to 3 trillion won by 2030.

Kang Heehoon, Director of New Growth Procurement Planning (third from the left), is explaining the plan to expand public procurement of innovative products at the Government Daejeon Complex on the 11th. Provided by the Public Procurement Service

The public procurement system for innovative products was introduced in 2019 to allow the government to act as a leading buyer of innovative products, thereby promoting technological innovation and contributing to improved public services. Since the introduction of the system, the Public Procurement Service has designated a total of 2,320 innovative products, supporting the growth of innovative companies with annual public procurement exceeding 1 trillion won last year.

Furthermore, as advanced technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly transforming the entire industry, the role of public procurement for innovative products is becoming even more significant.

Accordingly, the Public Procurement Service plans to expand the scale of public procurement for innovative products from 1 trillion won in 2024 to 2 trillion won in 2028, and 3 trillion won in 2030.

First, the budget for pilot purchases of innovative products will be increased next year. The government budget proposal for next year includes 83.9 billion won for pilot purchases of innovative products. This is an increase of 31 billion won compared to this year's 52.9 billion won. The Public Procurement Service plans to continue increasing the pilot purchase budget in the coming years. Pilot purchases are considered a key innovative procurement project, allowing the public sector to verify and spread innovative products first.

Alongside the expansion of public procurement for innovative products, measures will also be implemented to strengthen the system's original purpose and enhance its effectiveness.

To this end, the Public Procurement Service will integrate the two-stage process-previously separated into public value and innovation assessments-into a single procedure to reduce the burden on companies, and increase the number of opportunities for support from three times a year to four. However, in line with the original intent of the two-stage review, the agency explained that minimum passing criteria for both public value and innovation will be maintained, and only products meeting all criteria will be designated as innovative products.

The agency is also seeking to increase the cumulative number of designated innovative products to over 5,000 by 2030. The foundation of this initiative is to newly designate specialized research institutions as scouts, leveraging their expertise to discover innovative products. In this process, the Public Procurement Service will establish dedicated tracks focused on future strategic industries such as AI, thereby lowering barriers to entry for public procurement.

Efforts to strengthen the management of innovative products will proceed in parallel. The agency will introduce demonstration coordinators to oversee the discovery of demand and the demonstration process for innovative products. These coordinators will identify suitable organizations for testing innovative technologies such as AI and ensure that the demonstration process is carried out thoroughly.

During the demonstration phase following pilot purchases, products with minor performance shortcomings will be given a chance to improve through a re-challenge opportunity, and post-management for innovative products that have completed pilot use will be enhanced.

Baek Seungbo, Commissioner of the Public Procurement Service, stated, "Public procurement of innovative products serves as a foundation for promoting future-oriented technology development and driving innovative growth in the domestic economy. The Public Procurement Service will significantly expand the scale of public procurement for innovative products, acting as a catalyst for economic growth and paving the way for a better future."

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