Meeting Minutes 

Update on recent European Chamber lobby activities

Mr. Van Kerckhove introduced recent lobby activities of Public Procurement Working Group, including:
 21st September - Public Procurement Market Access Team (MAT) meeting: key areas discussed included
- Update on Joint Committee Meeting between Chinese Minister for Trade Chen Deming and Trade Commissioner DeGucht
- Recent developments including ‘Information Security Technical Standards’ and ‘Information Security Techniques Basic Requirement of Information Security for National Departments”; and indigenous innovation catalogues being abolished in provinces e.g. Shanghai; Yunnan; Fujian and Xiamen
 22nd September - European Council of Foreign Relations: The Chair met with representatives of the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) during their research visit to Beijing for their annual report on EU performance on foreign policy.
 14th October - Netherlands Embassy: The Chair along with the Working Group’s Business Manager met with representatives of the Netherlands embassy and Netherlands Business Support Offices in China to give a presentation on the key messages of the European Chamber Public Procurement Study and Position Paper 2011/2012.
 27th October - European Chamber of Commerce Taipei: The Chair along with the Working Group’s Business Manager met with representatives of the ECCT to discuss the key messages Public Procurement Study and Position Paper 2011/2012.

Updates on three key measures linking indigenous innovation to government procurement

Background
It was presented that on 28th June 2011, the Ministry of Finance posted a notice voiding three key measures that comprise an important part of the regulatory framework promoting government procurement (GP) of indigenous innovation products.

Updates
 It was presented that since this central announcement, several provincial and local-level authorities have announced the voiding of related indigenous innovation / GP measures, policies and catalogues. This is based on information received from some European Chamber member companies, a report from the US China Business Council on the topic, and information obtained by the EU Delegation.
 Areas that were highlighted as having positive developments includes Anhui, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Hebei, Jiangxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xiamen.
 Working Group member companies commented that these developments were encouraging but that they had not witnessed any concrete changes on the ground as they are more involved in public procurement (as opposed to GP).

Update on status of implementing regulations of Government Procurement Law (GPL) and GPA offer by Paul Bunsell, EU Delegation

Paul Bunsell presented updates from a recent meeting of the EU Head of delegation and Assistant Finance Minister Wang Bao’an.

Updates on GPL Implementing Regulations
• Still not clear when implementation regulations will be released
• Articles referencing indigenous innovation will be removed
• ‘domestic companies’ will be better defined to bring it in line with high-level statements of the Chinese government
• There are articles concerning the spilt over effects of Government Procurement Law. But the implementation regulations are not available now.
• The requirement for demonstration of 20% price gap between foreign and domestic products will be removed.
• Still no clear idea of when Bidding Law implementation guidelines will be released – is a work in progress.

Updates on GPA offer:
• The new offer will improve coverage of local government entities
• No solid agreement on level of thresholds
• At the same time, some of our main concern and key requirements still are not met. For example, the threshold ceilings are still too high in comparison with other GPA nations #
• SOE coverage is unlikely. SOEs are separate from government,

Ideas for lobby initiatives going forward
• Continue to inform relevant stakeholders and policy makers of the Public Procurement and Government Procurement situation in China, including European Commission, member state governments, and other interested parties.
• Organise a cross-Working Group meeting on public procurement: to facilitate a discussion/exchange of industry representatives from the various European Chamber Workings Groups where government/public procurement is a key issue, to discuss/share the relevant sector problems, trends, and lobby priorities.

ACTION POINTS
• If you have any further suggestions/ideas for lobbying activities, meeting topics, or other public procurement events/activities (including speakers on particular topics), please contact Mr. Jean-Paul Larche at jplarche@europeanchamber.com.cn
• If you are interested in being a candidate for the Vice Chair of the Public Procurement Working Group, or have any suggestions on suitable candidates, please contact Mr. Jean-Paul Larche at jplarche@europeanchamber.com.cn

Related

Contact