Digitalisation of Public Procurement Prospects Discussed at the National Centre RUSSIA

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Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given instructions on conducting an experiment using digital e-commerce platforms for state and municipal procurement. Approaches to implementing them were discussed at the expert session titled "Platformisation of Public Procurement", which took place on 11 November as part of Platform Economy Day at the National Centre RUSSIA.

Sergei Kravtsov, Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, outlined the ministry's main working directions regarding the implementation of the experiment. Among other things, he highlighted key priorities in the public procurement system for Russia's education sector.

"We need to ensure a unified educational space not only through standardised programmes but also through uniform equipment requirements to guarantee both quality and affordability. This will help both ensure education quality and achieve budget savings. In our view, platform solutions can effectively deal with this problem, provided that responsibility for quality and verification of the equipment remains with the Ministry of Education. We maintain this responsibility. Another crucial aspect is logistics and speed of delivery," emphasised Sergei Kravtsov.

The experimental transitioning of public procurement to digital platforms, which was initiated at the highest level, became the central discussion topic. Session moderator Alexander Vilinov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Experts' Directorate, spoke about this initiative's significance and about the course of implementation.

"In early November, the President instructed the Russian Government, jointly with the State Council Commission on Effective and Competitive Economy, and with participation of the VEB.RF state development corporation and other digital platforms, to conduct an experiment on educational procurement via e-commerce platforms. This aims to develop the platform economy nationally, and in Far Eastern Federal District regions, all procurement should be made through such platforms. Today we have a unique opportunity to discuss approaches for implementing the President's instruction," Alexander Vilinov stated.

Alexei Moiseyev, Deputy Minister of Finance, explained how conventional online trading platforms could integrate with existing procurement systems to improve their efficiency. He outlined non-negotiable principles for the development of procurement digitalization: "The main requirement is that digital platforms must meet information security requirements, register all significant actions, ensure pricing transparency, as well as transparency of admission of system participants, and verify participant qualifications. The question of budget savings is also essential. When these and some other requirements are met, the more platforms we will have here, the greater competition there will be. But critical non-negotiable areas remain data protection, action registration, and quality verification with supply guarantees." 

Pavel Malkov, Governor of Ryazan region and Chair of the State Council Commission on Effective and Competitive Economy, shared his region’s experience in implementing a pilot project on procurement via digital platform. According to him, there were no significant problems, but he noted the advantages in speed, convenience and cost reduction. The governor emphasised the importance of transitioning from manual procurement compliance monitoring, which is the case now, to automated one.

Maria Bagreyeva, Deputy Moscow Mayor and Head of Moscow Government Economic Policy Department, discussed digital platforms' potential and technological solutions. Particularly, she noted that platforms could offer competitive solutions in remote regions with low population density and delivery challenges.

Anna Katamadze, Deputy Head of the Federal Treasury, outlined prospects for developing procurement systems through e-commerce, and suggested the ways to achieve them. One of such ways offered was improving warehouse logistics.

Mikhail Kuznetsov, Head of the Executive Committee of the Russian People's Front, presented the results of a survey of over four thousand customers, which identified the main directions for developing the platform economy in the public procurement system. According to the speaker, it is necessary, first of all, to work on increasing the product range and developing competition, and secondly, to address the problem of ensuring supply reliability.

Robert Mirzoyan, Director General of the Wildberries and Russ united company, spoke about how technological platform solutions can develop the potential of public procurement. Among the advantages of using marketplaces, he cited a wide assortment and high request processing speed, as well as the presence of a "digital footprint," which allows the user to analyse what, when, and at what price they purchased.

In conclusion, Yuri Korsun, Deputy Chairman of the "VEB.RF" state development corporation, Member of the Board of VEB.RF, noted that in public-private partnership interactions, each participant can solve different tasks. In this regard, according to him, the experiment should be considered not only as a convenient way of converting a large volume of documents into digital format, but also as a good tool that takes into account the specifics of the participants’ business processes.

In our country, Platform Economy Day is being held for the first time. Its participants are discussing how digital platforms and their ecosystems are becoming a new effective tool of the global economy. As part of the programme, sessions were held on the topics: "Platform Economy Without Borders," "The Ecosystemness of Our Lives," "Trust Economy: Transparent Digital Transactions on Platforms," and others.

Key events of the day included the signing of the Memorandum of Fair Practices for Digital Platforms by representatives of leading Russian digital platforms, as well as the expert session of the Open Dialogue "Digital Platforms as Drivers of New Economic Development."

The organisers of Platform Economy Day are the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the National Centre RUSSIA, and the VEB.RF corporation.