A nine-member delegation of the New Development Bank (NDB) exchanged views on procurement practices of NDB and Bangladesh at a meeting with the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) at CPTU Conference Room in the capital today.
The New Development Bank, formerly known as BRICS Development Bank, finances projects and innovates tailored solutions to help build a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth, said a press release.
The BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. These countries are the founder members of the NDB. Bangladesh joined the development bank as a member in 2021. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt are also new members of the NDB.
Director General of CPTU Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury chaired the meeting while He Tian, project team leader, Public Sector Department of NDB led the delegation.
The delegation of Shanghai-based multilateral bank is now in Dhaka to finalize lending for the Dhaka City Water Supply Resilient Project of Dhaka WASA and explore financing in areas like digital infrastructure, water and sanitation, environment protection, social infrastructure and clean energy.
The DG of CPTU in a presentation gave an overview of Bangladesh Public Procurement Framework which includes steps towards reforms, transformation into electronic procurement system, professionalization of procurement, impact of reforms and new initiatives in the reform process.
He elaborated on the recent progress in electronic government procurement (e-GP) system in Bangladesh. These are in addition to e-GP of electronic contract management system, electronic audit, tenderers' database, international competitive bidding and self-payment through automated challan.
In a presentation, Hua Xu, senior procurement professional of NDB, spoke on the procurement practices of the development bank. She appreciated the public procurement framework of Bangladesh. "The public procurement system in Bangladesh is very advanced," she observed.
Directors of CPTU and additional secretaries Masud Akhter Khan and Md Shamimul Haque, director and joint secretary Md Mahfuzar Rahman, director Laboni Chakma, senior system analyst Md Mosharraf Hussain and other officers of CPTU were present in the meeting.
Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman, additional chief engineer and project director of Dhaka WASA and its two other officers were also present.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha