Government Action to Support Welsh Business
16 Oct 2008
"Access to the public sector and rapid settlement of invoices is one of the best ways of helping enterprises through the current credit crunch", Mr Davies told business leaders at the All-Wales Economic Summit this morning in Cardiff.
And with the current financial environment pointing to tough times ahead, greater use of the programme could deliver more contracts for Welsh-based business and major savings to plough back into key public services, he said.
The Minister announced further details of the Welsh Assembly Government's ground breaking xchangewales programme at a conference in Swansea this afternoon (Thursday 16th October).
The programme has already delivered nearly £5 million worth of benefits in just five months, Mr Davies told delegates in Swansea.
"The track record now shows that electronic procurement means better value for money and can speed up payment to suppliers - a key issue for small businesses and one of our top priorities",
"Xchangewales is part of our commitment to ensure the best value possible for the Welsh pound and help create public services in which we can all take pride.
"Today I am calling for all public sector contracts to use the Xchangewales pathway to ensure greater opportunities for Welsh businesses to tender for public sector business.
"With commitment from all, we can manage more efficiently the estimated £4.5 billion of public procurement spend in Wales every year - securing both economies of scale and better quality services.
"We now have a unique opportunity to position Wales on the world map, as a pioneer of advanced procurement techniques - using modern technology to chart the course towards a more sustainable future."
Note to Editor
1. The xchangewales project is part of the overall Value Wales programme. As the procurement arm of the Welsh Assembly Government the Value Wales division helps the public sector achieve value for money. The xchangewales web site address is: www.xchangewales.co.uk
2. xchangewales will benefit Wales by:
- releasing significant savings for reinvestment in the delivery of essential front-line services ;
- making effective use of management information created to inform future procurement decisions, increasing collaboration across the public sector;
- increasing the uptake of collaborative contracts through provision of a central source of contract information and catalogues, supporting the Value Wales Sourcing Strategy;
- establishing a standard electronic purchasing and payment system available to the whole of the Welsh public sector, which would include the Welsh Purchase Card as a payment method;
- providing a simplified portal, free of charge to all schools in Wales, through which they could view, order and pay for goods and services available through collaborative contracts, with estimated savings of up to £22 millions;
- giving organisations greater visibility, and therefore more control of their spend; and,
- dramatically reducing or even eliminating the need for paper documents
In addition, it can help remove barriers to public sector procurement faced by SMEs, by standardising processes and reducing their costs through a single system approach, delivered at no cost to the supplier community.
The programme would deliver economic development benefits by:
- reducing the number and complexity of systems dealt with by suppliers;
- reducing transaction costs through electronic exchange of orders and invoices;
- enabling faster payment processes, thereby improving cash-flow;
- giving greater visibility of available offers, leading to more orders and helping to increase turnover and generate profit;
- enabling suppliers to set up and maintain their own catalogues and ensuring that product information is always up to date; and
- providing, at no cost to suppliers, system set-up and training which would also prepare suppliers for dealing with e-enabled clients in wider markets.