Title_Environmental Sustainability and Government Procurement Reform in East Asia: Achievements and Outcomes

Author_ David S. Jones

Pages 33-58

Abstract_ An important reform of government procurement in the last two decades is the incorporation of environmental standards in the criteria for determining the products acquired and the public works undertaken by government agencies (referred to as sustainable procurement). These requirements have been in recent years included in internationally-recognized best practices of government procurement. They affect product and design specifications, the criteria for awarding contracts, and in the case of public works contracts, they also affect the assessment of contractor performance, including the management of the works site. In recent years, governments of East Asia have adopted reforms to promote sustainable procurement to varying degrees, with noticeably more progress achieved in the developed countries than in the developing and emerging countries of the region. This paper will focus on why the developing and emerging countries of the region have lagged behind the developed countries, identifying as key factors the extent of open competition in tendering, and the budgetary, organizational and human resource constraints in procurement.

Keywords_ East Asia, environmental sustainability, government procurement