Statement by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on the launch of the KRG’s e-procurement portal

I welcome today’s launch of the KRG’s first e-procurement portal, introducing transparency and accountability to public tenders in ways that bring more efficiencies to public finances; support the emergence of small and medium businesses, and allow us to incubate new industries to accelerate our reform agenda.

I’m pleased that the Ministry of Planning has already started to update the existing procurement regulation, and trained contractors for the new portal. Over the next few weeks, the system will be enforced across government departments.

This service was one of the first to be hosted in the KRG’s data centre, allowing the whole of government access to the data and building visibility of the goods and services available in the private sector.

I commend the hard work the Minister of Planning and his team to roll out the project despite interruptions by the COVID pandemic. I also want to recognise the continued support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for their years-long effort to increase capability in the KRG’s public sector.