Parul
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) Samvaad, a two month long national outreach programme to reach out to stakeholders across the country and local sellers who are micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is being held across states. The GeM Samvad aims to facilitate on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace while catering to specific requirements and procurement needs of buyers.
The State Departments and Organizations and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have been using GeM for their buying needs. Sellers from the states are also benefitting through the access to national Public Procurement market using the portal. Through GeM Samvaad the marketplace is looking forward to receiving feedback from users which will be used for making improvements and advancements in the system.
It is reported that GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services. It also has more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40,000 government buyer organizations.
As per reports, in the span of three years, GeM has processed more than 28 lakh orders worth Rs 40,000 crores in gross merchandise value out of which 50% has been transacted by MSMEs.
The outreach programme took off from 19th December 2019 and during the launch week the States of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh were covered. All the outreach programmes witnessed overwhelming participation of buyers and sellers. The target is to reach out to all stakeholders and learn from their experiences on their usage of GeM portal.
Through this outreach programme, GeM expects to make the actual users aware about the new features and functionalities of the portal and collect feedback, which is the first step towards GeM’s ‘Voice of Customer’ initiative.
As per the Commerce and Industry Ministry release, a roundtable with ministries/departments and Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) was held recently in the national capital as part of GeM Samvaad. More than 100 participants including financial advisors and nodal officers of ministries, departments, and representatives of CPSEs participated in the roundtable and shared their feedback, challenges and suggestions.
