Author: Sam Achampong, Regional Director, CIPS AMEA
Years ago, I led a procurement initiative that should have been a success. We had the funding, we had the suppliers, and we had the demand. Yet the project stalled, not because of price, quality or relationships, but because the goods had to pass through three disconnected regulatory systems.
That experience taught me a lasting lesson that procurement success is not only about what we buy, or who we buy it from, it is about access. And access is not something that can be solved by one organisation or even one country alone. It is something we must build together.
- Hidden barriers to supply
- Across many regions, procurement professionals face the same barriers I experienced:
- Limited or no access to ports
- Underdeveloped transport infrastructure
- High warehousing costs
- Conflicting regulatory standards
Each of these creates friction in the supply chain. For procurement leaders, the result is slower delivery, higher costs and reduced resilience. For businesses and economies, it means missed opportunities for scale and long-term growth.
Consider the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It promises to connect 1.3bn people across 55 countries with a combined GDP of US$ 3.4tn. Yet the biggest barriers are not tariffs, but roads, railways, customs processes and digital systems that do not talk to each other. Until these issues are addressed, procurement opportunities remain constrained.
Challenges
The Middle East faces similar challenges. The GCC has made progress on customs unification, but fragmented infrastructure and inconsistent standards continue to slow the movement of goods. In Asia-Pacific, ASEAN nations have worked for decades to harmonise trade rules, but bottlenecks still exist at borders and in logistics networks.
These concerns are reflected in the latest CIPS research: in the 2025 Global State of Procurement & Supply Report, 78% of procurement professionals said ESG issues, including environmental regulations and compliance standards, are a major priority for their organisations, yet many also flagged regulatory complexities as one of the biggest barriers to progress. In short, the barriers are less about economics and more about connectivity.
The role of regional agreements
Regional Procurement Agreements are often seen through the lens of cost savings, bulk purchasing, preferential trade terms and economies of scale. These are important, but they are not the full picture.
At their best, these agreements are about something bigger: scale, resilience and growth. They are about rethinking how goods move across borders, aligning infrastructure investment, and creating standards that do not stop at the edge of one nation.
When neighbouring countries coordinate on regulations, logistics and infrastructure, the benefits compound:
- Faster delivery times through streamlined customs and border processes.
- Lower risks by diversifying access points across a region rather than depending on a single port or warehouse.
- Stronger ecosystems as regional suppliers, distributors and service providers grow to meet harmonised demand.
The European Union offers a mature example. Common standards, shared infrastructure investment and open borders have enabled supply chains to operate with speed and predictability across 27 countries. While not every region will integrate to this extent, the principle holds: when rules align and infrastructure connects, procurement becomes more efficient and resilient.
Procurement as a strategic driver
Procurement professionals are uniquely positioned to see where the friction lies. We are often the first to feel the delays when shipments are stuck at a port, when regulations clash or when infrastructure falls short.
This perspective gives us an important role to play in advocating for systemic change. Procurement leaders can:
- Highlight inefficiencies and make the cost of disconnection visible.
- Influence investment priorities by demonstrating ROI from regional infrastructure projects.
- Help shape dialogues between governments, trade bodies, and the private sector.
According to the latest CIPS Pulse Survey (Q2-2025), regulatory complexity and trade barriers are now among the top concerns facing procurement leaders globally, even more pressing than cost volatility or supplier shortages in many cases. This tells us something important: if we do not address access, we cannot unlock resilience.
In doing so, procurement shifts from being a transactional function to a strategic driver of regional competitiveness. This is where the real transformation happens: moving from competitive advantage, holding tightly to what we can secure, to collaborative advantage, where countries and organisations build resilience together.
The stakeholder equation
For governments, regional agreements mean unlocking growth by attracting investment, diversifying trade and strengthening resilience against global shocks. For businesses, it means access to larger markets, more reliable logistics and lower costs of doing business.
For procurement professionals, it creates opportunities to manage risk, deliver value and operate with greater transparency and predictability. But making regional procurement agreements effective requires more than political will. It demands:
- Infrastructure investment: ports, railways, digital systems and renewable energy integration.
- Regulatory harmonisation: aligning standards, customs processes and certification.
- Skills and capacity building: equipping procurement and supply professionals to operate confidently in a cross-border, digitally enabled environment.
CIPS’ 2025 global survey also shows that procurement functions are prioritising investment in visibility, digital tools and sustainability, signalling that leaders already understand the need for stronger, more transparent regional supply ecosystems.
This is where professional bodies such as CIPS play a role: embedding standards, developing skills, and ensuring procurement leaders have the tools to navigate complex, regionalised supply ecosystems.
As global supply chains grow more complex and less predictable, the need for regional cooperation becomes clearer. Geopolitical tensions, pandemic disruptions and the acceleration of decarbonisation all highlight the importance of resilient regional ecosystems. Ultimately, the real advantage is not in what we keep, it is in what we build together.
