Ivo Stapf, "Tender Service Group" - We offer the largest tenders database to Serbia's market

(Ivo Stapf)

"Tender Service Group" and Ekapija have joined forces to provide unique service forSerbian clients - comprehensive tender database withspecial focus on Central and Eastern Europe www.ekapija-tenderi.com. On that occasion, Director and owner of “Tender Service Group”, international provider of tender information, Mr. IvoStapf has recently visited Belgrade and he was kind to give an interview for Ekapija journalist.

Mr. Stapf, could you pleasetell us bit more about "TenderService Group" and your growing networkin Europe.

We are currently active in 13 countries. Westarted in 2004 and take one expansion step after another. We are the onlytender information company that provides the national tender data –meaning alsosmaller tenders that are not published on EU-wide level - from all of these countries. We plan to further grow with the goal ofcovering whole Europe. So we need to start ourservices in another ca. 20 business relevant countries.

What are the main benefits that you offer toyour clients which differentiates you from your competitors? Who are yourbiggest competitors in global terms?

We have a unique database – in 2008 wepublished 1,100.000 tenders and try hardly to optimize our service leveltowards our customers in making sure that they receive only the tenders theywant . There are very few tender information companies with an international orglobal approach besides a World Bank affiliated company providing mainlytenders from the World Bank.

What is the www.ekapija-tenderi.com offer for Serbia?

We think that there is no other service in Serbia that canoffer this number of tenders especially on international level. So everycompany in Serbiathat is already exporting or just even thinking of exporting has a big benefit– we watch what tenders are there in their branch or product segment.

And our absolutely customer-oriented servicewill also give a new quality to the market.

How do you see the tenders market in Serbiaand how you compare it with other East European countries?

In terms of competition it is quite developed.But when I look at the number of public tenders published every day I think weare far behind EU standards. Many tenders in Serbia are never accessible justbecause they are not published. So in terms of transparency there is room forimprovement.

Could you please give us some statistics aboutnumbers of tender information in countries that your network covers and whichcountries are most open and transparent in their public procurements?

In your neighbouring countries for example Romaniaor Bulgaria we saw in 2008 the followingnumbers: Bulgaria - 16.000 national and over 4.000 on EU level; Romania – Over140.000 national and 14.000 on EU level.The comparable figure for Serbiais ca. 10.000 - so there are somethousand pieces of tender information in Serbia “missing”.

Do you see corruption problem in countries of Eastern Europe, regarding public procurements, and howthat affects your business?

- The problem of corruption is present in all countries of Eastern Europe and that is one of the main reasons why Serbia ranks 85th in index of www.transparency.org.Of course that such situation affects our business because there are fewer tenders and there is general distrust in public tenders. I hope that the changes, which happen on daily basis, will have positive impact on these facts, and I hope that we will be able to present much more impressive statistics in the near future. We can freely say that the number of announced tenders "per capita" represents the index that points to better transparency, competitiveness, as well as more successful economy.