The government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working sincerely for women empowerment through inclusion of this large segment of the population in all activities to ensure sustainable development of the country.
As a result, women in large numbers have come forward in all fields, including employment, income generation activities and public services as well as business and enterprises, and in some cases, their success crossed the levels of that of the male community.
Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin, Secretary, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, said this while speaking as the chief guest at an e-GP awareness workshop for women entrepreneurs and women tenderers organized by Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) at its conference room on Tuesday.
Md Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, Director General, CPTU, chaired the workshop and made a presentation on “Overview of Public Procurement System in Bangladesh.
Arafat Ishtiaque, Procurement Specialist of the World Bank, also spoke at the workshop. A total of 50 participants including over 30 women tenderer and entrepreneurs attended the workshop. IMED secretary and CPTU DG appreciated interests of women in e-GP of CPTU.
Senior officials from CPTU who were present at the workshop include Md Aknur Rahman, Director (Joint Secretary), Md Nasimur Rahman Sharif, Director (Joint Secretary), Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Director (Joint Secretary), Ashfaqur Rahman, Director ((Joint Secretary), Md Mosharraf Hussain, Senior System Analyst, Laboni Chakma, Director (Deputy Secretary) and Md Shafiul Alam, Senior Communication Consultant. Mohammad Shahjahan, Director and CEO, Dr Zeenat Sultana, Program Director, BCCP, among others, were present.
Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin said, most women across the country are contributing to economic activities in various forms and so the fact is that 100 per cent of women in the country are employed, which is an exception than males.
With the belief that women can bring better results in all fields in all aspects, he encouraged women community to come forward in enterprises and tendering activities. He also supported CPTU’s plan to give preferential treatment to women tenderers and said if women are supported, then the country would find big female tenderer in the near future.
He highly appreciated the World Bank for its continuous support for taking e-GP forward since its beginning and expected its further contributions in making sustainable public procurement in the country.
Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury said CPTU is supervising implementation of e-GP system in the country. As part of that, several significant modules have been added recently to make e-GP more functional. As a result, the entire process starting from tender planning to contract implementation management can now be done online.
The new modules include tenderer's database, A-challan, direct procurement method (DPM), international tender module, electronic contract management system (e-CMS), electronic audit (e-audit) and e-GP’s integration with National Identity Card (NID).
With these inclusions, the public procurement system has been fully digitized which will ensure sustainable development in the country by implementing the government's vision to build Smart Bangladesh, he added.
Mentioning that 50 per cent of the country’s population are female, CPTU chief said the state cannot be a developed one without their participation in the development process. Referring to a study he said, the activities completed with involvement of women are done honestly, sincerely and efficiently and so there is every change for better outcomes from the works accomplished by women.
Participants made various queries on public procurement and raised their problems and concerns that they face while taking part in tendering and completion of tendering procedures. CPTU high officials replied their queries and assured them on resolving those for the benefit of all concerned.
