The event was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, ‘Arun Jaitley’ on February 5, 2018. The event was hosted by the Public Procurement Division (PPD) of the Ministry of Finance and All India Management Association (AIMA). The theme of the SARPPC meeting was ‘Public Procurement and Service Delivery’. The main purpose served by the 3-day Conference was to enable the Head of Public Procurement and other key stakeholders in the eight South-Asian Countries to meet as well as learn from one another and from the experts in the field of Public Procurement. The theme was to serve an improvement in public procurement of the participant countries which ensures timely and quality delivery of Public Services.

The meeting was sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank. The meeting will help South Asian Governments to enhance the innovation in the Public Procurement Systems, enable efficient utilization of public resources, as well as provide timely and quality delivery of services. The Conference provides a mutual learning platform for all the heads of the Public procurement system more effective in the utilization of Public Resources. The SARPPC conference was first started in 2010 at Kathmandu in Nepal. In the meet, all the eight SAR countries spend approximately $550 Billion, which spent over the Public Procurement of Goods, Works, and Services, which automatically turns into the service of the public.