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16.06.2022

Arman Shakkaliev: "Participation of small and medium-sized businesses in public procurement in some EAEU countries reaches 90%"

The issues of public procurement as an efficient mechanism for developing small and medium-sized businesses were discussed on July 15 by the participants of the Russian Forum for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, which started on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Arman Shakkaliev, Minister in charge of Competition and Antitrust Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, took part in the forum.
In his speech, the Minister noted that the EAEU was paying special attention to the participation of representatives of small and medium-sized businesses in public procurement and ensuring a national regime in procurement for them. "There should be hospitality in public procurement. It is necessary to create conditions for the little ones to feel as comfortable as the big ones," the Minister noted.

The EAEU's common public procurement market amounted to 152 billion US dollars in 2021. Compared to 2020, this figure increased by 10%. Positive dynamics is also observed in the mutual participation of suppliers on the territory of the EAEU countries. The value of public procurement contracts during this period increased by 2.5 times and amounted to 368.4 million US dollars in 2021.

The EEC Minister believes that the public procurement market should be "competitive, cooperative and of high quality." For this purpose, according to Arman Shakkaliev, the EAEU is currently performing the intrastate coordination of the international agreement on the mutual recognition of bank guarantees and actively developing the draft Rules on the mutual recognition of electronic digital signatures to be implemented within the next year.

According to the Minister, one of the most important Commission's recent achievements is the solution of the issue on the mechanisms and conditions for determining the country of origin of goods for the purposes of public procurement. The rules for determining the country of origin of certain types of goods for public procurement purposes stipulate the conditions for producing 319 types of goods in 13 industries, under which such goods are considered to originate from a Member State.

The Minister urged business representatives to more actively submit their proposals for expanding the commodity items and production conditions covered by the rules and to get included in the Eurasian Register – the Commission's information resource.

An extract from the Register is a single document confirming the country of origin of the goods. To date, it includes more than 6,000 items of goods produced by the EAEU Member States.

"Efficient development of the public procurement market within the EAEU will contribute to developing industrial cooperation, encouraging competition between suppliers of goods, works, services, and manufacturers from the different Member States, providing conditions for a healthy procurement market without obstacles and restrictions," Arman Shakkaliev summed up.