On December 10 an international videoseminar “Demystification of Electronic Government Procurement” took place. The seminar was organized by the World Bank in partnership with the prefecture of Zelenograd administrative strict of Moscow, Institute of the Information Society and Non-commercial partnership “Development of Information Technologies and Resources”.

Videoseminar “Demystification of Electronic Government Procurement” consisted of two parts: Russian (14:00-16:30) and international (17:00-21:00).

The Russian part gathered on Moscow platforms - in prefecture of Zelenograd administrative strict and in the Moscow Office of World Bank - representatives of federal and Moscow authorities, Russian experts, IT specialists. Representative of Russian regions asked questions and expressed their opinions in a special section on prefecture’s website.

The program was opened by Aleksey Mikhalchenkov, The First Prefect Deputy of Zelenograd administrative division of Moscow, and Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors.

During the second part of the seminar the Russian segment connected to the World Bank’s platform in Washington and participated in international discussion of the problem, where spoke high-ranking governmental officials and experts of foreign countries. Some of questions discussed:

• What are the most successful examples of e-GP? Is there a solid evidence of positive impact? Can these be easily replicated in other countries?
• What should governments do to ensure success of e-GP?
• What kind of procurement system reforms may be necessary? What changes to legal framework may be necessary?
• Is there a need for a global reference model or agreed common standards/specifications or generic open source solution?

The discussion also dealt with strategies of intrusion of discussed technologies, their gradual implementation, advantages of electronic procurement mechanisms use and expense associated with them. Also issues of integration into state finances management, risk management in private-public partnership, business models of such partnership were discussed and aspects dealing with e-signatures use, organizational structures were observed.

During the seminar practical examples of successful realization of government procurement  systems use were examined and general recommendations for successful realization of projects in this sphere were formulated.

All additional materials of the seminar are published at the website of the World Bank.