Bogotá, Colombia – Today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced the renewal of its partnership with Colombia’s National Agency for Public Procurement, Colombia Compra Eficiente, to support the development of high-quality public infrastructure through value-for-money training. Under USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative: Understanding Best Value (GPI), USTDA and Colombia Compra Eficiente signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will deepen a bilateral partnership on procurement best practices that began in 2016.

“Renewing USTDA’s partnership with Colombia builds on our history of strong collaboration to build better, high-quality and resilient infrastructure,” said Enoh T. Ebong, USTDA’s Acting Director. “The Government of Colombia has made great strides over the last few years at the federal, state, and local levels. Their public procurement officials have utilized the GPI to great effect and have shown a lasting commitment to improve transparency, international competition, and use of best practices in public procurement.”

Under the partnership with Colombia Compra Eficiente, USTDA will support trainings on international best practices and the integration of best value methodologies. The trainings will be carried out in coordination with the George Washington University Law School’s Government Procurement Law program and U.S. expert practitioners with extensive procurement experience in government, the private sector and higher education. This second stage of USTDA’s partnership with Colombia Compra Eficiente will deepen Colombia’s workforce professionalization efforts, as well as focus on improving the use of analytical tools such as life-cycle cost analysis and other sector-specific procurement best practices.

“Our renewed partnership with USTDA will deepen our countries’ long history of collaboration to secure better procurement outcomes and make sound, competitive investments,” said José Andrés O’Meara Riveira, Director General of Colombia Compra Eficiente, “Public procurement is critical to delivering goods and services to Colombian citizens, and the integration of best practices such as life-cycle cost analysis results in increased integrity, efficiency, and value.”

Since 2013, USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative: Understanding Best Value has assisted public officials in emerging economies to better understand the total cost of ownership of goods and services for infrastructure projects. The Initiative now includes 12 partner countries, and USTDA continues to review requests from additional countries to participate in the GPI.

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The U.S. Trade and Development Agency helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority development projects in emerging economies.  USTDA links U.S. businesses to export opportunities by funding project preparation and partnership building activities that develop sustainable infrastructure and foster economic growth in partner countries.

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