OPENING REMARKS AT THE WORKSHOP ON THE ASIA

PACIFIC PROCUREMENT PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

Dear Mr. Ham Id L. Sharif Principal Director of the Central Operation Service
Office, Mr. lgnatious Santoso, Director of the COS02,..Asian Development Bank,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's my honor to welcome all the delegates to the workshop on the Asia Pacific
•Procurement Partnership Initiative. Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to
Asian Development Bank for suggesting Ministry of Planning and Investment of
Vietnam as the co-organizer of the first sub-regional meeting of East and
Southeast-Asia. The workshop is more meaningful when being held in Hanoi,
where has just celebrated its Millennial Anniversary and Vietnam is the hosting
country of 16 th ASEAN Summit Conference.

In comparison with other countries in the region, procurement is a quite new area
in Vietnam. "Public Procurement" concept first appeared in 1994 with the
launch of Public Procurement Regulation. From then, the public procurement
legislation of Vietnam has been improved gradually, especially after the issuance
of Public Procurement Law in 2005. Since that benchmark, some new contents in
public procurement such as professionalism in public procurement, e-
procurement, complaint and complaint resolution in public procurement have
been processed.

On the background of international economic integration, Vietnam public

procurement is not the outsider. Vietnam keeps the role of an active partner in
regional forums like Asia Pacific Cooperation Forum and ASEAN. Additionally,
Vietnam also strongly cooperates bilaterally and multilaterally with other
countries. Co-charing this workshop on the Asia Pacific Procurement Partnership
Initiative, Vietnam, like the other coutries, would like to exchange and learn
experience from others on specific public procurement issues.

Based on the above cooperating wills, I wish our workshop to fully succeed.
I wish all the delegates memorable time in Hanoi.

Thank you very much.

Le Van Tang
General Director
Public Procurement Agency
Ministry of Planning of Investment, Vietnam