A nine-member delegation of the New Development Bank (NDB) exchanged views on procurement policy and practices of NDB and Bangladesh at a meeting with the Central Procurement Technical Unit at CPTU Conference Room in Dhaka on 21 May 2023.

The New Development Bank, formerly known as BRICS Development Bank, finances projects and innovates tailored solutions to help countries achieve a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth.

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. United Arab Emirates and Egypt are also new members of the NDB.

Director General of CPTU Mr. Mohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury chaired the meeting while Mr. He Tian, Project Team Leader, Public Sector Department of NDB led the delegation.

The delegation of Sanghai-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 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, Ms. Hua Xu, Senior Procurement Professional of NDB, spoke on the procurement practices of the development bank. She appreciated public procurement framework of Bangladesh. “The public procurement system in Bangladesh is very advance,” she observed.

Directors of CPTU and Additional Secretaries Mr. Masud Akhter Khan and Mr. Md Shamimul Haque, Director and Joint Secretary Mr. Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Director Ms. Laboni Chakma, Senior System Analyst Mr. Md Mosharraf Hussain and other officers of CPTU were present in the meeting.

Mr. Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman, Additional Chief Engineer and Project Director of Dhaka WASA and its two other officers were also present on the occasion.