Agency holds joint public-private regulatory innovation committee Tuesday, reviewing new tasks and implementation progress
The Public Procurement Service aims to complete all 120 regulatory rationalization tasks by year's end, supporting procurement reform and a leap forward for the national economy.
The agency held the second joint public-private Procurement Field Regulatory Innovation Committee of 2026 at the Seoul Regional Office of the Public Procurement Service on Tuesday, finalizing new tasks for rationalizing public procurement regulations and reviewing the status of all ongoing initiatives.
The committee reviewed implementation of regulatory rationalization tasks confirmed at its first meeting in March — including the "Procurement System Reboot" initiative — while also identifying and discussing new tasks that reflect changes in domestic and international economic conditions and feedback from the field.
During the first half of the year, the agency worked to lower barriers for new-technology companies entering the procurement market by establishing an AI fast track for innovative products and giving preferential treatment to AI goods in multiple-supplier contracts. It also led efforts to ensure small and medium-sized enterprises receive fair prices by raising the minimum award rate thresholds for eligibility reviews across goods, services and facilities.
In the second half, the agency plans to wrap up reforms to outdated procurement systems and focus intensively on balanced growth and reducing the burden on businesses.
The first initiative covers a pilot program for autonomous local government procurement.
To ensure the smooth completion of the pilot for autonomous unit-price contracting by local governments, the agency will strengthen oversight, management and training for participating institutions, and will continue monitoring compliance with legally mandated priority purchasing for vulnerable, small and medium-sized, and women-owned businesses.
The second initiative focuses on curbing swarm bidding and building a fair procurement market.
To prevent swarm bidding in public procurement and establish fair market order, the agency will strictly respond to market-disrupting behavior — including collecting bid deposits from bidders on items prone to indiscriminate bidding and from companies suspected of being shell entities — in active support of national normalization.
The third initiative supports companies outside the Greater Seoul area and in population-declining regions to drive balanced growth.
The agency will introduce a fast track to shorten the multiple-supplier contract signing period for companies outside the Greater Seoul area and add a new credit bonus in eligibility reviews for goods and services. It also plans to prioritize automatic shopping-mall recommendations for regional and population-declining area companies in the second stage of multiple-supplier contract competition, boosting their market access and invigorating local economies.
The fourth initiative addresses the document submission burden on businesses.
The agency will also ease the document submission burden for companies in public procurement. Documents previously required for selecting safety inspection agencies for construction projects will be cut by 95 percent through system integration, and submissions for pre-qualification reviews of complex construction projects, multiple-supplier contract documents and price data will be shifted online.
Meanwhile, the committee on Tuesday determined the final award grades for five proposals selected through internal review and evaluated through public and expert panel assessments from the "2026 Public Procurement Field Regulatory Idea Contest." Details will be made available on the Public Procurement Service website.
Public Procurement Service Commissioner Baek Seung-bo said the agency would "strategically leverage annual public purchasing power of 238.5 trillion won ($168 billion) to nurture new industries and drive corporate growth, and actively support national normalization and state policy tasks through procurement reform and regulatory rationalization." He added that the agency would "continue to deliver changes that people and businesses can feel, and strengthen public procurement's role in supporting a great economic leap forward."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
