Government procurement to reach $24B in 2004 ( 2003-12-09 15:58) (Xinhua)
China has set the scale of government procurement at 200 billion yuan (some
24.1 billion US dollars) in 2004, said an official of China's Ministry of
Finance.
The actual volume is likely to reach 220 billion yuan (about 26.5 billion
dollars), Zhou Chengyue, deputy director of the ministry's treasury department,
told a recent training course on government procurement held in Beijing.
China introduced government procurement on a trial basis in 1996 and the
volume of government procurement has been growing steadily since then. It hit
100.9 billion yuan (12.16 billion dollars) in 2002 and is most likely to reach
150 billion yuan (18.07 billion dollars) this year, said a government
procurement official of the department.
"Although government procurement mainly targets domestic products, imported
products made up a considerable proportion of it. Imported products are needed
because Chinese enterprises are still incapable of making such products at
present, like sophisticated cameras for reporters," said the official.
He said the emphasis of China's government procurement next year is on
engineering projects, including projects in the fields of public facilities,
greening and office buildings, a shift from goods and services that dominated
government procurement in the past years.
Acknowledging that government procurement in China still has much room for
growth, he said the volume of the country's government procurement in 2002
accounted for less than one percent of its gross domestic product, much lower
than the average level of 10-15 percent in developed countries.
China aims to use government procurement to spur economic growth in less
developed areas and small and medium-size enterprises, as well as for promoting
environmental protection.