GPP Bhutan at 12th Asia Pacific Round table for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Green Public Procurement in Bhutan (GPP Bhutan) project participated in the 12^thAsia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production held at Apsara Angkor Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia from 13-14 July 2016. The roundtable meeting was hosted by Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment in partnership with the International Institute for Scientific Research (IISR) and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the EU-funded SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Support Component (RPSC) and other key partners.

The 12^th APRSCP with the theme “Acting together for our future sustainability” involved multi stakeholders from the Asia Pacific developing countries in the meeting to continue a dialogue in innovative policy solutions, scaling up technology and knowledge bench-marking, approaches and instruments towards the development and implementation of SCP related Sustainable Development Goals at regional and national levels. The primary objective was to foster dialogue and partnerships among multi-stakeholders through a Roundtable approach.

Mr. Yeshey Penjor, Project Director, GPP Bhutan Project and Mr. Netra Sharma, Senior Researcher, GPP Bhutan-Royal Institute of Management (RIM) participated in the SWITCH-Asia Network Facility organized special session 3: Waste Management & Circular Economy as Integral Part of SCP in Asia.

Many of the Green Public Procurement in Bhutan (GPP Bhutan) project deliverables and contribution to the RGoB effort in implementing SCP was reiterated through the NEC presentation during the UNEP session of Roundtable 5: SCP Policies and Implementation of Eco-labeling and SPP, presented by Mr. Karma Tshering from the National Environment Commission (NEC) representing Royal Government of Bhutan. Mr. Karma’s presentation was titled “Review and Revision of the Public Procurement Rules (PRR) 2009 and the bidding documents in Bhutan”. GPP Bhutan’s review of PRR 2009 was shared with the NEC last year and the on-going review the Standard Bidding Documents will also be shared with them to enable the government’s PRR reviewing committee to consider GPP elements in their procurement.