1. Experiences of Czech Production Co-operatives in the public procurements 17th december 2008

2. Main aims of Union of Czech Production Co-operatives: -greater participation of our members in public procurement -strengthening competitiveness of our members -to contribute more towards growth and employment

3. Difficulties faced by our members 1/ difficulties in obtaining information; 2/ lack of experience in tender procedures; 3/the large scale and thresholds of the contracts ; 4/ too short time for preparing the offer; 5/ cost of preparing the offer 6/required high reference levels, economic and technical criteria 7/ discrimination against foreign tenderers and favouring local and national enterprises; 8/ required deposits and guarantees are usually too high. 9/ finding collaboration partners abroad.

4. Resources of information: TED – Tenders Electronic daily Information of Commercial Sections of Czech Embassies abroad Databases of state administration and municipal governmental organizations about issued Calls for Tender issued in Czech Republic

5. Training courses and seminaries on tender procedure practice: usually organized by CzechTrade - National Trade Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

6. Problem of large scale public contracts Solution: - its breaking into smaller LOTs -participation in consorcium -sub-contracting

7. Low participation of our members in foreign Calls for Tender - reasons Preference of participation in public procurement contracts in the Czech Republic - reasons

8. Thank you for your attention! Věra Řeháčková Union of Czech production –co-ops tel: + 420 224 109 422, fax:+ 420 224 230 319 rehackova@scmvd.cz, http://www.scmvd.cz/rehackova@scmvd.cz http://www.scmvd.cz/