Business Outreach conference was held on World Bank Financed Investment Projects- procurement.

(May 23/2025) The conference was prepared at Capital Hotel having an agenda of organizing important business outreach to support bidders to know how the World Bank support sectors globally. Participants (supplier side, consultancies, World Bank teams and others) from different sectors were invited.

The opening remark was held by the Director General of the Authority Honorable Mrs. Meseret Meskele, gave special thank for the WB that makes such conference which helps to attract the bidders.

Following this having such commitment and the style of transformational leadership regardless of the Ethiopian Government helps to build not only the national but also the international image building capacity which attract foreign investment that makes us to give more emphasis for sustainable economic development from which the area of procurement is the one that takes more focus to have such success.

She also stated that, the government has designed revised public procurement proclamation No.1333/2024 to modify the governance system as if public procurement provides governments with a powerful tool to achieve their objectives specially in driving business performance efficiency and comparative advantage.

The Director General also forwarded that to have positive effect on procurement practicing Electronic Government System (e-GP) is mandatory to optimize electronic communication.

In conclusion, she stated that digitalization in procurement practice is a strategic importance that embrace the expected transformation to create interconnected world.

Following this brief presentation was delivered by the Bank teams Mr. Arun Kumar (Senior Procurement Specialist in Ethiopia and Sudan and south Sudan, WB). In his presentation Core procurement principles, process of new procurement, frame work and the reasons why the bank has made the change and the market engagement were included.

He also stated about the environmental and social frame work following with relationship among parties, the WB Procurement framework, the common problems with proposals and those solutions that helps to avoid misfortune/bad luck.

Following the presentation, Mr. Ewunetu Abera, CEO at Perago systems, also delivered presentation about the overview of e-GP implementation including end-to-end procurement operations, challenges encountered, mitigation measures to be taken and the new initiatives were also included.

To this end, questions and comprehensive comments were raised by the participants and responses were given by the assigned respondents. Indeed, conclusion remark was also forwarded.