E-bidding has made public procurement a transparent and open process. It has also reduced wastefulness in public spending, saved time and bidding fees, and enabled bidders and contractors to be more proactive.

These were initial assessments by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, municipal departments, sectors and businesses which have taken part in a pilot e-bidding project, which was launched in mid-September.

E-bidding has been implemented on a trial basis at the Hanoi People’s Committee, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group, and the Electricity of Vietnam via the portal http:// musamcong.mpi.gov.vn

At a conference to deploy regulations on e-bidding held in Hanoi on Sept. 22, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong stressed the importance of e-bidding in the e-government project.

“E-bidding is a major push to stimulate IT application in every field,” Dong said.

E-commerce and e-bidding in public procurement is an inevitable trend and indispensible way that many nations over the world are applying to build e-government.

In many ODA-funded projects in Vietnam, the donors have required beneficiaries to undertake e-procurement to ensure the transparency and effectiveness of the projects using their ODA.

Aware of the importance of this model, the Prime Minister, in September 2005, approved a master plan for the development of e-commerce in the 2006-2010 period.

He also assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to carry out a project to apply e-commerce in the government’s procurement.

In the framework of the project, a pilot e-procurement system for the government has been built on the basis of the integrated Korea Online E-procurement System (Koneps).

The system, which was optimized to fit Vietnam’s conditions, cost nearly 3.4 million USD, of which 3 million USD was contributed in the form of non-refundable aid by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)./.