Presentation
China's Government Procurement Policy

Ms. Yang Ningning
Project Officer, APEC Division, Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, China

The Government Procurement Law of China has been enlisted in the legislative plan of the National People's Congress (NPC) and is being drafted by its Financial and Economic Committee. It is envisaged that the law will be adopted by the NPC before August 2002. The Ministry of Finance produced the Interim Measures for the Administration of Government Procurement (GP) in 1999, which was the first nationwide non-binding regulation on government procurement.

Since the authorization by the State Council to formulate and implement the GP policy, the Ministry of Finance has set up an institution to oversee the execution of the policy. Previously, governments at all levels had set up administrative agencies responsible for establishing policies and supervising and managing GP activities.

Given GP is new to China, and professional staff are in short supply, personnel training is an important priority. In addition, China is seeking to continue information exchanges on GP with other countries. Also, a number of pilot projects are underway in the country on a large scale, with a variety of central and local government departments practicing the GP system.

By law, in order to promote transparency in GP, all the procurement information, including legislation, regulations, policies and tendering invitations, must be published. Government is also obliged to adopt open tendering over a threshold price decided upon by the state.

Follow-up plans include the following:
- Continue the work on formulating the GP law, taking into full consideration the WTO GPA;
- Study and determine the appropriate threshold price to be applied in public tendering;
- Push reforms in relevant areas aiming at establishing GP system;
- Study and develop the system for complaints about GP and the GP network; and
Grant national treatment to foreign suppliers.