News of an important policy programme on the public procurement system of Thailand

October 2021 saw the start of an important project for high level policy dialogues and training on the public procurement system of Thailand, launched by the International Trade Centre, which is a joint agency of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and United Nations. The project will focus initially on the sustainability of the public procurement appeals system of Thailand but also has a broader remit to address issues relating to the overall effectiveness of the management of public procurement system. 

Several members of the Public Procurement Research Group (PPRG) will be involved in the project over the next few months. The policy team is led by Robert Anderson, Honorary Professor with the PPRG, who was formerly Senior Counsellor and Team Leader for Government Procurement in the WTO. Professor Sue Arrowsmith, Dr Peter Trepte – who has also been involved previously with public procurement reform in Thailand – and Dr Luke Butler also form part of the core policy team, providing a series of training sessions and also feeding into the report on the appeals system of Thailand which will be produced as part of the project, while Professor Anna La Chimia will also provide a presentation as part of the project. 

The project kicked off with, among other events, an analysis of the Thai system by Samart Saengrin  from the appeals committee of the Comptroller-General’s Department (see photo), providing the basis for future discussion with the core policy team.