Forum with Public Procurement Service chief draws 20 SME leaders

Groups call for higher MAS threshold, advance payment reform

Kim Ki-moon: 'Urgent' to guarantee fair prices in procurement system

[Korea Federation of SMEs]
[Korea Federation of SMEs]

South Korea's small and medium-sized enterprise community has called on the government to reform the public procurement system to ease excessive price competition and ensure fair pricing for SME suppliers.

The Korea Federation of SMEs held a forum Wednesday at its Yeouido headquarters in Seoul, inviting Public Procurement Service Commissioner Baek Seung-bo to discuss pressing policy issues and potential reforms in public procurement.

The forum brought together 20 SME representatives from various industries alongside Baek and other Public Procurement Service officials.

The SME leaders submitted a total of 23 reform proposals based on challenges they face in the field.

Key requests included establishing guidelines for unit-price sliding adjustments and revision applications in goods manufacturing contracts, raising the threshold for second-stage competition under the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) system, reflecting SME views on the abolition of mandatory MAS contracting by local governments, and improving advance payment rules.

The SME community particularly stressed that intensifying price competition in the procurement process could hurt not only profitability but also product quality, calling for institutional safeguards to guarantee fair pricing.

Korea Federation of SMEs Chairman Kim Ki-moon said procurement administration "carries great significance in securing the country's domestic manufacturing base — and by extension laying a solid foundation for the national economy — by purchasing goods produced directly by domestic companies."

He added that it was "urgent to establish a procurement system that guarantees fair prices so that excessive price competition does not worsen the financial difficulties of SMEs participating in the procurement market or drag down product quality."


hong@heraldcorp.com