European Union Chamber of Commerce in China: Another disappointing and limited Chinese offer to join the Government Procurement Agreement Go back »

2012-12-06 | All chapters

China’s limited definition of government procurement in its Government Procurement Law does not include the vast proportion of public procurement projects tendered by public entities and SOEs. Instead, approximately 88% of China’s public procurement market falls under the Tendering and Bidding Law. By maintaining this distinction, the scope of the third revised GPA offer fails to reflect public procurement realities. Furthermore, whereas most public procurement in China is carried out at the sub-provincial level and through projects implemented by SOEs and financed with public money, just eight provincial level regions are covered by the GPA offer and none at the sub-provincial level. As such, total coverage of the third revised GPA offer likely covers just two to three percent of China’s total public procurement marketplace. This is in stark contrast to the practice in the EU where approximately eighty-five percent of the public procurement market is opened to third countries in its GPA.

“China’s third revised GPA offer is far from acceptable. To improve public procurement in China and to ensure that Chinese firms retain access to public contracts around the world, the Chinese government should issue a comprehensive and sincere GPA offer that reflects market realities by extending the coverage to include local governments and SOE projects financed with state money,” said the President of the European Chamber, Davide Cucino. “Europe’s public procurement markets remain resiliently open during the crisis although the EU is not legally bound to permit non-GPA signatory countries unfettered access to its own marketplace. Systematic market access restrictions and discriminatory treatment issues continuously heap pressure on governments to tackle these problems. It is no-one’s interest for this pressure to lead to a closing of markets.” 

"Increased competition provides greater choice and quality at lower total life-cycle cost. A more efficient allocation of public capital and the attraction of private capital into public projects would save Chinese taxpayers billions of Euros per year through decreasing the potential for corruption, " commented Gilbert Van Kerckhove, Chairperson of the European Chamber’s Public Procurement Working Group.

According to The European Chamber’s Public Procurement in China study, the first ever business-led report on public procurement in China, China’s public procurement market is worth approximately twenty percent of China’s GDP. This equates to an annual market size worth substantially more than one trillion Euros. The study also showed that EU companies face huge challenges in accessing China’s public procurement marketplace.

About The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China was founded by 51 European member companies in October 2000 in order to give European businesses a common voice across different business sectors, nationalities and regions of China. The European Chamber now has more than 1,700 member companies and is active in seven chapters across nine cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, the Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou and Shenzhen), Shanghai, Shenyang and Tianjin. The Chamber is recognized by the European Commission and the Chinese government as the authoritative and independent voice of European business in China.

For more information, please contact:

Yolanda Zhang 张君婷  

中国欧盟商会 新闻官

Press Officer

European Union Chamber of Commerce in China

Tel: +86 (10) 6462 2066 x 22
Fax: +86 (10) 6462 2067
Email: yzhang@europeanchamber.com.cn

Source: The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China

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