The Business Opportunities Seminars (BOS) are regular events organized by ADB's Procurement, Portfolio, and Financial Management Department (PPFD) for its consultant and contractor community to share news and updates on how to access ADB opportunities and its procurement framework. Since the pandemic started, ADB is holding virtually the BOS with the support of ADB speakers. These events are traditionally organized at the request of constituency partners. In order to better support the companies and consultants to access ADB opportunities, PPFD started the virtual ADB-initiated BOS in 2021 with topics on ADB's consultant management system (CMS) in June and climate change and disaster risk management in October.

PPFD and the Urban Sector Group held the next ADB-initiated BOS on ADB procurement framework and livable cities. The event showcased ADB's response to address the future challenges of Asian cities on sustainable urban sector inter-linked with transport, climate change, water, energy, health, and others, and also help the consultant and contractor community to better understand how they could participate in these activities.

Objectives

During the webinar, participants had the opportunity to:

• meet virtually with ADB staff in the urban sector, procurement, consulting, project management, and related operations.
• hear procurement methods and case studies from the livable cities theme.
• discover what business opportunities are available for livable cities, and where.

At the end of the seminar, participants:

• discovered how to address key challenges in Asian cities and how consultants and contractors can support them with specific approaches and technologies.
• gained a greater understanding of topics related to 1) livable cities such as housing, tourism, and greening of urban infrastructures, and 2) traditional sectors of intervention of ADB with a cities-focused theme, for instance, climate resilience urban transport, circular economy, urban water and sanitation, and energy optimization.