HSE-EACES Workshop on Public Procurement: Held Online for the First Time

Despite all the turbulence and uncertainty created by Covid-19 crisis, HSE-EACES workshop on Public Procurement in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia was successfully held on April 9 (as originally planned) online via Zoom.

The workshop is organized by the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies of National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in cooperation with EACES and Center for Social and Economics Strategies, Charles University.

The EACES workshop was part of the XXI Annual HSE April International Conference on Economic and Social Development. The programme of the day started with a keynote speech by Prof. Juraj Nemec (Masaryk University & Matej Bel University) about factors determining the efficiency of public procurement in Slovakia and in Central and Eastern Europe Region.

After the lecture, the workshop included three panels on specific topics with participants' presentations followed up by discussions. The first panel was devoted to the most discussed issue of corruption in public procurement (Chair: Elena Podkolzina, HSE University). The second panel discussed the impact of public procurement on the growth of firms, especially the policy of preferences to small businesses (Chair: Juraj Nemec). The final third panel focused on buyer experience and the design of the procurement process (Chair: Michal Placek, Charles University). During the workshop 10 papers were presented and discussed by 25 scholars from different universities in Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Impressions of the Workshop

With regard to this workshop, Professor Andrei Yakovlev said that he was pleased to hear papers that were diverse in content and high in quality. 'There was a board range of presentations, from different areas that reflect a real picture of research in the public procurement field.'

Even in an online format, the workshop allowed participants to learn about each other's work closely, to meet colleagues who have similar research interests and to receive critical but constructive feedback.

'I was delighted to present my work to such an expert audience and to receive so many valuable comments. The group is very diverse in the experience and methods but shares the same research interest. This is why I signed to the workshop and also why I was very sad when it was canceled. When the online format was proposed I was hesitant, but not anymore. It was a right decision to hold the workshop online, I appreciate that the organizers did it. The role of the discussants was very important in facilitating the questions and comments from the audience, this seems to be crucial for online formats. Overall, 10/10 for the online version, and I am ready to buy the offline version once it is available.'

Alexander Nesterov, St. Petersburg School of Economics and Management

'I do appreciate the quality of presented papers. They covered the most important todays topics in public procurement. I would like to thank the organizers for a great arrangement of the online format of the whole workshop.'

Michal Placek, Charles University

'The workshop was well organized, despite the situation with the coronavirus and the online format. I thank the moderators for a serious discussion and a thorough analysis of our work. For me, this was the first experience of such a presentation, where serious attention is paid to moderating and reviewing works. I hope that such workshops will be held more often!'

Jamilya Sozaeva, Public corporation "Unified electronic trading platform" (UEP), "Synergy" University 

 'My main impressions as a participant of the workshop: the relevance of the issues discussed, high quality of setting up the discussed problems and modern technology of their examining, strict observance of the rules of the event and the absence of any technical problems. The only "drawback": the lack of coffee breaks, in which problems are discussed informally over a cup of coffee.'

Andrei Ivanov, Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg University

We are grateful to all the participants, discussants and the Program Committee of the Workshop. We are very glad that we could organize it even in this new format for all of us. And to quote Prof. Paola Valbonesi, 'Looking forward to new events, hopefully in person!’'

A full recording of the workshop will soon be available on the April Conference website.