The General Office of the State Council has issued the “Opinions on Innovating and Improving Institutional Mechanisms to Promote the Standardized and Healthy Development of the Tendering and Bidding Market.”

　BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) — Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Innovating and Improving Institutional Mechanisms to Promote the Standardized and Healthy Development of the Tendering and Bidding Market” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”).

　　The Opinions adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and uphold the principle of better integrating an effective market with a capable government. They focus on leveraging the competitive and merit‑based functions of tendering and bidding, reform and innovate the institutional framework for these processes, advance digital transformation in depth, and accelerate the establishment of end-to‑end, full‑chain regulatory mechanisms. Upholding a nationwide coordinated approach, they resolutely dismantle departmental silos and industry barriers, fostering an efficient, standardized, fair‑competition‑driven, and fully open tendering and bidding market. This will facilitate the smooth flow of goods, factors of production, and resources across a broader scope, providing robust support for building a high‑standard market system and establishing a high‑level socialist market economy.

　　The Opinions set forth four guiding principles. First, adhere to a problem‑oriented approach and address both symptoms and root causes, gradually establishing a long‑term mechanism to promote the standardized and healthy development of the tendering and bidding market. Second, uphold a systems‑based perspective and foster coordinated synergy, effectively pooling efforts to advance the development of the tendering and bidding market. Third, adopt differentiated policies and targeted measures to enhance the precision and effectiveness of governance in the tendering and bidding market. Fourth, champion innovation as the driving force and leverage digitalization and other tools to boost efficiency, strengthening innovation in institutional frameworks, operational models, transaction mechanisms, and regulatory systems to propel the transformation and upgrading of the tendering and bidding market.

　　The “Opinions” set forth policy measures across seven key areas. First, they call for improving the tendering and bidding institutional framework by refining the design of rules and regulations and strengthening the coordination and alignment of laws and policies. Second, they emphasize implementing the principal responsibility of procurers, reinforcing their central role, enhancing service mechanisms for tendering agencies, and promoting innovation in procurement processes. Third, they seek to refine the evaluation and award‑determination mechanisms by upgrading evaluation methods and procedures, optimizing the process for selecting winning bidders, and strengthening full‑cycle management of evaluation experts. Fourth, they advocate advancing digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading by accelerating the adoption of digital and smart technologies and optimizing the electronic tendering and bidding platform system. Fifth, they aim to strengthen coordinated and efficient oversight and administration by holding administrative supervisory authorities accountable, bolstering multi‑level, comprehensive regulatory frameworks, and expediting the rollout of smart‑regulation approaches. Sixth, they strive to foster a standardized and orderly market environment by rigorously cracking down on illegal activities in tendering and bidding and continuously eliminating provisions and practices that impede the development of a unified national market and fair competition. Seventh, they seek to enhance the effectiveness of tendering and bidding policies by establishing robust incentive mechanisms to support innovation, optimizing mechanisms for promoting and applying green procurement, and improving the policy framework to facilitate the participation of small and medium‑sized enterprises.

　　The Opinions call on all regions and relevant departments to strengthen organizational leadership, improve mechanisms for advancing work, and ensure the thorough and meticulous implementation of all tasks; they encourage local authorities and grassroots-level entities to proactively explore new approaches and boldly innovate; and they emphasize the need to intensify publicity and interpretation efforts, as well as public oversight, in order to foster a social environment conducive to the standardized and healthy development of the tendering and bidding market.

[Editor-in-charge: Wang Di]

Source: Xinhua Net