Laws of the People's Republic of China

Shang Yuan Fa [2006] No. 413

The competent departments of commerce of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all the enterprises that undertake the implementation, exploration and design, construction supervision and counseling of foreign-aid projects,

For the purpose of strengthening the administrative supervision and administration on bidding for foreign aid projects and effectively implement the principles of "fairness, impartiality and openness", the Ministry of Commerce has constituted the Provisions of the Ministry of Commerce on Announcing and Questioning the Bid Evaluation Results of Foreign-aid Projects (for Trial Implementation), which is hereby printed and distributed to you and shall go into effect as of September 1, 2006.

The department of this Ministry that uniformly accepts the questions over announced bid evaluation results of foreign aid projects and the contact ways thereof are as follows,

The accepting department: Foreign Aid Department of the Ministry of Commerce

Address: No. 82 Dong'anmen Street, Beijing

Floor 6th, Dong'anmen Office District, the Ministry of Commerce

Contact Number: 010-85226617, 85226649

Fax: 010-65129350

The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

August 22, 2006

Provisions of the Ministry of Commerce on Announcing and Questioning the Bid Evaluation Results of Foreign-aid Projects

For the purpose of strengthening the administrative supervision and administration on bidding for foreign aid projects, effectively implementing the principles of "fairness, impartiality, openness and optimum selection" and strengthening the credibility of bid evaluation results, the Ministry of Commerce has decided to try out the announcing and questioning of bid evaluation results of foreign aid projects, which goes as follows:

1.

The foreign aid projects, whose implementation entities are selected by way of competitive bidding, shall all be listed into the announcing scope of bid evaluation results, which concretely includes the construction, exploration and design and the construction supervision of whole sets of foreign aid projects as well as foreign aid material projects (including single equipment projects).

In case the scope of publicity shall be expanded as required by business development, the Ministry of Commerce shall make supplementary provisions thereon and publish them.

2.

The bid evaluation result of a foreign aid project shall be announced after the related bid opening is conducted and before a notice on bid awarding is officially distributed. The period for the announcement shall be 5 workdays in general and may be 3 workdays upon approval under special circumstances, which shall be clearly indicated in the circular on bid opening by the Ministry of Commerce.

Where there is no question or all questions are settled upon expiration of the period for announcement, the Ministry of Commerce shall distribute a notice on bid awarding to the bid winner.

3.

The Ministry of Commerce shall announce the following items to the bidding enterprises through the "Exclusive Network for Foreign Aid Bidding",

(1)

main contents of the bid evaluation report, including the validation of the effectiveness of bids that have been effectively served, qualitative judgment, quantified scoring and major reasons for deducting scores.

(2)

result of bid opening;

(3)

contact persons and contact information for consulting the contents of the bid evaluation report, which have been designated for explanation; and

(4)

how to raise questions and the question accepting organ.

4.

Bidding enterprises shall, within the period of announcement, consult by themselves the published bid evaluation results through the exclusive bidding network. In case any bidding enterprise has any question about the contents of a bid evaluation report, it may request the contact person as designated by the Ministry of Commerce to make technical explanations and descriptions at first.

5.

Bidding enterprises, which have any different opinion on any bid evaluation result (hereinafter referred to as the question raiser) may raise question over the following problems within the period of announcement,

(1)

any law-breaking or rule-breaking act in the bidding procedures;

(2)

any law-breaking or rule-breaking act during the organization of bid evaluation; or

(3)

any law-breaking or rule-breaking act concerning bid evaluation results.

6.

The question raiser shall fill in a Questioning Form of Bid Evaluation Results (see the appendix for details) to raise questions, which shall be affixed with the seal of its legal representative or the authorized representative thereof and thereafter be served, with the related certification materials, on the question accepting organ. And then it may be deemed as effective. In case any Questioning Form of Bid Evaluation Results fails to be served within the period of announcement, the related question raiser shall, within the period of announcement, serve the Questioning Form of Bidding Evaluation Results and related certification materials in written form by fax to the question accepting organ, of which the originals shall be made up within 2 workdays thereafter so as to validate the question.

7.

The question raiser shall guarantee the authenticity and lawfulness of the source of its questioned contents and related certification materials, and shall assume the related legal liabilities.

Where, upon verification, the question raiser brings forward any false questions, yet if it is not out of any subjective deliberate intent and no serious consequence has been incurred, the Ministry of Commerce shall give a written criticism and warning to it. In case any question raiser has any subjective deliberate intent to make any false question or where any false question has any negative impact on or incurs economic losses to the normal implementation of a project subject to bidding, the Ministry of Commerce shall, depending on circumstances, stop inviting the enterprises to join the bidding of the foreign aid project within 1-2 years.

8.

The Ministry of Commerce (to be specific, Foreign Trade Department) shall uniformly be responsible for accepting the questions posed by question raisers concerning the announced bid evaluation results of foreign aid projects and opening the exclusive telephone and fax.

9.

Questions may not be accepted under any of the following circumstances:

(1)

where it fails to be effectively served in accordance with these provisions;

(2)

where it is brought forward by a non-bidder;

(3)

where no legal seal is affixed to the Questioning Form of Bid Evaluation Results as well as the related letters;

(4)

where there is no clear content, clue or related evidence; or

(5)

where any different opinion is raised merely against the bid evaluation result in the absence of any related evidence.

10.

The Ministry of Commerce shall inform the question raiser of the result of question treatment within 10 workdays as of the day when a question is accepted.

The results of question treatment are classified into three types: maintaining the bid evaluation result, altering the bid winner and announcing the invalidity of the bidding. In particular, where a bid winner is altered, the new winner shall be announced via the "Exclusive Network for Foreign Aid Bidding" within the period of announcement as prescribed herein. In case any bidding is announced invalid, a new bidding shall be organized or the way of bidding shall be separately decided.

11.

In case a question raiser has any different opinion on the treatment of its question, an administrative review or lawsuit may be raised under law.

12.

The Ministry of Commerce is responsible for interpreting such matters as are not prescribed herein.

These Provisions shall go into effect as of September 1, 2006.

The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

August 1, 2006