Peppol и АЭТП

Russia showing interest in PEPPOL

by Enrique Vich — created on 03/07/2012 01:50

A major delegation from various Russian agencies, commissions and companies attended the 7th PEPPOL conference in Rome earlier this year. The Russian participants expressed a strong interest in further co-operation with PEPPOL.

Currently, in Russia there are several trading platforms, which form the Association of eTrading Platforms (AETP) that somehow correspond to that of PEPPOL. The Association's goal is the creation and successful operation in Russia of a single interactive space which provides the opportunity to combine the efforts of all electronic trading systems.”

“This cooperation is an effective tool that will bring communication between our suppliers to the next level. However, in order to reach this goal we need to take several steps and we hope that our international partners are also interested in our cooperation.  We are proud to be involved in the PEPPOL experience. At the same time, Russia has developed many things recently at different levels: state, local, municipal. We think that the integration is good but it should include the best developments from your side and our side.” Iliya Dimotrov, Executive Board member of AETP.

According to Vladimir Savchenko, a delegate from the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), one of the differences between the two projects has been their implementation strategy. The way the Russian system has been developed somewhat resembles the strategy of Norway. By legislative means the eInvoicing system has been made mandatory, since 1 of January 2011 for all contracting authorities when trading with specific types of goods.

Government officials launched a procedure to select 5 different trading platforms that contracting authorities could use. The selection took place by the end of 2009 and the platform became functional in the autumn of 2010. After the final 5 solutions were chosen, from the 1st January 2011 onward, this was the only way government and municipal contracting authorities were able to buy these specific goods. Since certain types of goods are required by law to be traded on these ePlatforms, the number of tenders processed through the Russian system reached 850.493 in 2011, according to Savchenko.

Developing this system to be used outside of Russia is already a challenge for the EEC. Although the system in use within the EEC, there are currently country specific signatures being used which are not yet interoperable between the players: Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. 

The interest in the PEPPOL project originates from a similarity between the two projects. “The two different initiatives may be able to leverage on each other, being part of large economies in transition to eProcurement. If a system for interoperability within the EEC is to be developed, there is a future possibility that this interoperable system could also encompass PEPPOL, thus acting as a fourth corner in the setup.” – states Savchenko.

For the future Savchenko also expects better procurement due to more competition across the trading platform, as one of the benefits that can be reaped. Although there are some difficult technical implementation issues, savings from increased competition can be expected from such a solution.

“I think in near future with help of projects like PEPPOL we can build one big government procurement market, in which everyone involved in the procurement process can benefit from rising competiveness.” – concluded Vladimir Savchenko, representative of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

Contact Person:

• Enrique Vich, PEPPOL PR Director, enrique.vich@peppol.eu