By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-15 10:36

The volume of purchases made online by State ministries and commissions is expected to grow significantly from the end of this month, with the further development of a Web-based bidding system, a senior official has said.

Ma Jihong, Party secretary of the procurement center of the Central People's Government of China, said on Thursday: "On completion of the online invitation and bidding system, we will gradually publicize categories of the items available.

"The new system will help to lower procurement costs and improve efficiency," Ma told a seminar ahead of the fifth anniversary of the implementation of the Government Procurement Law.

She said the bidding system will also provide more openness and transparency.

The government implemented its procurement law in January 2003. Since then, the value of State purchases has risen from 700 million yuan ($95 million) to 10.7 billion yuan this year.

Also, according to official figures, in the five years since the law's enactment, more than 5 billion yuan of central government funds have been saved.

As of last Wednesday, the value of government procurement conducted via the center's website, www.zycg.gov.cn, was 5.3 billion yuan, almost half of the total spend for the year.

The site contains information on more than 6,000 individual buyers, 16,000 suppliers and about 150,000 products and services.

By providing detailed records of all transactions, including information on buyers, suppliers, contract checking and acceptance, the site, which receives some 20,000 visits per day, has "forcefully" promoted the transparency of government procurement procedures, Ma said.

To date, the center has made collective purchases for State organs at all levels.

While experts have generally praised the adoption of e-commerce applications for government procurement, Liu Junhai, president of the commercial law research institute of Renmin University of China, said "better purchasing credibility" still needed to be established.

"The procurement system has contributed significantly to saving government funds, reducing commercial graft and protecting the rights of suppliers," Liu told China Daily.

However, the system is not flawless, he said.

Collective purchases usually take longer to complete and in some cases, the product quality and after-sales service are not as good as they should be, he said.

Liu called for the introduction of more detailed regulations on government purchases, as parts of the current law are unclear and difficult to implement.

Liu Jie, vice-manager of Beijing-based Haoying Furniture Co Ltd, has also called for more clarity on the preferential policies the law says it gives to environmentally friendly firms, medium- and small-sized companies and businesses based in western areas.