United Nations procurement can provide huge business
opportunities for Chinese enterprises, and these companies should
learn more about the transparency of the procurement system,
according to Bernard Pacaud, supply and procurement officer at the
UNICEF Office for China.
"With so many UN organizations procuring various goods and
services, you might feel daunted by the size and complexity of the
UN system. Do not be," he said.
Pacaud was speaking on Tuesday at the Second International Forum
of Chinese Confucian Businesspeople, which is being held in
Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan
Province.
The UN, including its many affiliated agencies, represents an
international market of US$3 to 4 billion annually for suppliers of
virtually all types of goods and services.
Pacaud emphasized that UN procurement is based on a transparent
tendering system with contracts going to the lowest evaluated
offers meeting bidding conditions and quality requirements.
"Each agency has adopted common guidelines for procurement,
which were developed by the Inter-Agency Procurement Working
Group," said Pacaud.
For an annual fee of US$100, any enterprise can be listed in the
database of UN suppliers. Most agencies have a pre-qualification
mechanism.
"After registration, you just need to find out what each
agency's procurement requirements are and then market your goods
and/or services aggressively," said Pacaud.
According to Dong Hong, assistant director of the China
International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges under the
Ministry of Commerce, some Chinese enterprises have entered the UN
procurement system, but have missed opportunities because they lack
experience in marketing.
The Ministry of Commerce reports that before 2002, Chinese
enterprises provided around US$30 million of goods and services to
the UN annually, making up only around 0.7 percent of the UN's
total procurement. The figure soared to US$80 million in 2003.
However, because of unfamiliarity with the UN procurement system
a large proportion of China-made products and services provided to
UN agencies flow into the UN from third parties.
"The result is that the price competitiveness of the suppliers
is weakened in the international bidding, profit goes to the third
party and the direct exchange and transparency between UN agencies
and the suppliers is rather poor," said Dong.
(China Daily September 22, 2004)