The system will be used by the Hanoi People’s Committee, the Electricity Group of Vietnam (EVN) and the Telecommunications and Post Group for the first test run from 2009-11. In the next step from 2011-15, the system will be gradually expanded to public and administrative agencies and State-owned businesses before applicable to all economic sectors.

The EPPS has been designed o­n the basis of the e-bidding system of the Republic of Korea, adjusted to conform to the needs of Vietnam, and at the highest possible level of security, said the Samsung SDS Company.

As the main contractor of the project, the RoK company has undertaken the design and development of the system, which focuses o­n e-bidding during the test-run.

With this technology, a series of steps required by traditional bidding entailing complicated paperwork will now be performed automatically through just o­ne registration form each from bidders and tenders, said Samsung.

The Head of the Auctioning Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Dang Huy Dong, said the automation of the bidding steps through the EPPS will help reduce the costs of transactions and transport and save time.

 

In Vietnam, public purchase constitutes some 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and EPPS-based e-bidding will help reduce that by between 10 and 20 percent of that total, Dong said. He added that opportunities for corruption will also be diminished by the system’s transparency, making it easy for the public to access necessary information and services.

Joining the system, tenders may sell bidding forms to bidders shortly after publishing bidding invitations, without having to wait for a certain period of time as they did previously.

Such advantages will help boost the competitiveness of the bidding process in terms of both quantity and quality, Dong explained, concluding that the project would also help facilitate relations between Vietnam and the RoKPetroVietnam (PVN) has announced that its revenue from crude oil exports is expected to fall by 40 percent this year.

Although the year’s export volume is expected to increase by 5 percent over the yearly target to reach 15.85 million tonnes, revenue is estimated at o­nly 6.9 billion USD, or a decrease of 40 percent over last year, PVN said in a meeting in its headquarters in Hanoi o­n September 4.

According to PVN, the decline in revenue was attributed to the lower average oil price this year, which is 60 USD per barrel, down by 42 USD per barrel against last year.

At the meeting, PVN also set a target of tapping 15 million tonnes of crude oil next year in the hope of exporting 9.43 million tonnes. Of the remainder, 5 million tonnes would be provided to the Dung Quat oil refinery, the state-owned group said. It proposed that the government allow it to keep about half of its net profit to invest in a number of key oil exploration projects.