State-owned Assets Commission and NDRC Jointly Release Notice: Strictly Implement Bidding-Based Procurement for Projects

Guiding Principles for Standardizing Central Enterprise Procurement Management

To implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, further standardize procurement management in central enterprises, stimulate market competition vitality, effectively prevent illegal and non-compliant behaviors, comprehensively improve procurement and supply chain management levels, and put forward the following guidelines:

I. Overall Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, fully building a compliant, open, transparent, and efficient supply chain, significantly enhancing the resilience and security of industrial chains, establishing a robust procurement management system, strengthening value creation capabilities, and comprehensively promoting the standardized, refined, coordinated, and intelligent development of central enterprise procurement.

(1) Uphold Legal Compliance. Strictly abide by national bidding and tendering laws, regulations, and industry policies. Simultaneously clarify procurement methods and control points beyond bidding, strictly regulating procurement activities in central enterprises.

(2) Uphold Openness and Fairness. Treat internal and external market participants equally, eliminate industry monopolies and protect public interests. Improve internal control mechanisms, prevent loss of state-owned assets.

(3) Uphold Competitive Selection. Broadly search for suppliers, fully stimulate market competition. Prioritize performance-to-price ratio and total lifecycle cost optimization to select superior suppliers, contractors, or service providers.

(4) Uphold Coordination and Efficiency. Integrate internal and external resources, promote upstream and downstream collaboration, facilitate resource sharing, complementary advantages, efficient integration, and collaborative innovation to enhance the resilience and security of industrial supply chains.

II. Rational Selection of Procurement Methods

For projects explicitly requiring bidding-based procurement under laws such as the 'Bidding and Tendering Law of the People’s Republic of China,' 'Implementation Regulations of the Bidding and Tendering Law,' and 'Regulations on Engineering Construction Project Bidding and Tendering,' central enterprises must strictly comply. For non-engineering construction procurement activities not falling within the scope of mandatory bidding as defined in the 'List of Engineering Projects Requiring Bidding' (NDRC Order No. 16, 2018), nor covered by explicit legal provisions allowing non-bidding procurement, central enterprises, except when opting for bidding, should choose one of the following four methods:

(1) Quotation Comparison Procurement

Quotation comparison procurement refers to a method where three or more qualified suppliers submit non-modifiable prices once. The successful supplier is determined after review and confirmation.

Applicable conditions include: (1) The buyer can clearly, accurately, and completely specify procurement needs; (2) The technical and quality standards of the procured goods are highly standardized; (3) Market resources are abundant, and competition is strong, with at least three qualified suppliers available.

(2) Competitive Pricing Procurement

Competitive pricing procurement involves three or more qualified suppliers submitting multiple rounds of open price bids within a specified timeframe. The winning supplier is determined based on the final bid price.

Applicable conditions include: (1) The buyer can clearly, accurately, and completely specify procurement needs; (2) The technical and quality standards of the procured goods are highly standardized; (3) Price competition is the primary factor; (4) Market resources are abundant, and competition is strong, with at least three qualified suppliers available.

(3) Negotiated Procurement

Negotiated procurement involves separate negotiations with two or more qualified suppliers, either once or multiple times. The successful supplier is determined after review and confirmation.

Applicable conditions include any of the following: (1) The product's technology is complex or has special characteristics, making it impossible for the buyer to precisely define requirements, necessitating negotiation with suppliers to finalize specifications; (2) Procurement requirements are clear, but multiple implementation options exist, requiring negotiation with suppliers to determine the best solution; (3) Market supply is limited, with only two qualified suppliers available; (4) The procurement involves innovative products or services developed through joint R&D or risk-sharing partnerships between both parties.

(4) Direct Procurement

Direct procurement refers to one-time or multiple negotiations with specific suppliers, determining the successful supplier based on negotiation outcomes.

Applicable conditions include any of the following: (1) Involves state secrets, national security, or major commercial secrets of enterprises, unsuitable for competitive procurement; (2) Urgent procurement is required due to unforeseen emergencies, disaster relief, or emergency repairs; (3) Exclusive rights or specialized expertise are required; (4) Procurement must be conducted from the original supplier to avoid affecting project execution or functional requirements; (5) Only one qualified supplier exists; (6) Long-term contracts are needed to ensure stable supply of critical strategic materials; (7) Other situations explicitly stated in official documents by relevant government departments.

Additionally, for cases involving core subsidiaries providing essential equipment or services to group companies, if direct procurement is necessary, the parent company must adopt effective measures, strengthen centralized management, and report procurement decisions to higher-level enterprises after completing the decision-making process.

III. Strengthening Procurement Sourcing and Supplier Management

Fully leverage nationwide enterprise procurement sourcing and price comparison systems and other digital tools. Extensively conduct sourcing price comparisons, effectively identify risks such as false quotations, price collusion, and weak performance capabilities. Conduct full-life-cycle evaluations, establish a list of qualified suppliers, and perform dynamic management and assessments. Implement quantitative supplier evaluations based on comprehensive factors including qualification, creditworthiness, management level, and innovation capability. Categorize suppliers for tiered management, deepen long-term cooperation with high-quality suppliers. Promote the public disclosure, sharing, and standardized application of supplier information and evaluation results among central enterprises. Explore establishing a high-risk supplier list within related industries and gradually expand the sharing of high-risk supplier information, while ensuring that unqualified suppliers are not used as basic eligibility criteria for procurement and that compliant suppliers meeting core needs are not excluded or restricted.

IV. Improving Procurement Execution and Review Mechanisms

(1) Establish Robust Procurement Execution Systems. Central enterprises must follow procedures and national standards to formulate procurement plans, prepare procurement documents, issue procurement announcements or invitations, distribute procurement documents, organize reviews, confirm successful suppliers, and sign contracts. Small-scale and zero-value procurement may simplify processes accordingly. Special procedures must be established for emergency procurement projects such as disaster relief or sudden public incidents.

(2) Strengthen Expert Review Mechanisms. Procurement reviews must be confidential, fair, and impartial. No organization or individual may illegally interfere with or influence the review process or outcomes. Except for projects mandatorily requiring bidding, assess the importance of procurement items based on technical standards, amount size, and procurement method, determine the necessity of forming an expert review panel, and incorporate panel standards into procurement regulations. Expert panels should be composed of professionals matching the job requirements and work experience, including external members. Explore jointly establishing an expert database among central enterprises in the same industry through shared platforms or collaborative efforts. Enhance expert database access checks, professional training, and integrity education to improve professional competence.

V. Promoting Open and Transparent Procurement Activities

Except for direct procurement and other special projects involving confidentiality, enterprises should set open procurement thresholds based on their industry characteristics and actual circumstances. Procurement projects above the threshold should generally use open methods and publicly announce procurement information on electronic procurement platforms or provincial-level media and above. After results are confirmed, they must be publicly disclosed on the media that published the procurement announcement. For direct procurement projects made public, the project details (excluding confidential cases) must be disclosed prior to procurement.

VI. Enhancing Procurement Digitalization Levels

(1) Deepen Application of Electronic Procurement Systems. Support central enterprises in integrating electronic procurement with big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other emerging technologies. Build online trading platforms based on the national electronic bidding platform, achieving business openness, process control, end-to-end online operations, and traceability. Under the premise of unified rules and interoperability, enterprises may independently build electronic procurement systems. Relevant systems should interoperate with the national electronic bidding public service system and the central enterprise procurement online monitoring system, integrating into a unified public resource trading platform system. Enterprises without independent platforms may voluntarily choose third-party electronic trading systems offering reasonable fees and high-quality services from other central enterprises, local governments, or third parties. Strictly regulate charging practices on electronic procurement platforms, reasonably define fee standards, prohibit duplicate charges, and refrain from using fees as preconditions to exclude or restrict potential suppliers.

(2) Vigorously Promote Corporate E-Markets. Encourage central enterprises to build their own e-markets and procure standardized industrial products, low-cost consumables, and common service items through them. E-markets should determine qualified suppliers through competitive methods in compliance with laws and regulations, defining terms for product tiers, price adjustments, risk sharing, payment settlement, etc. E-markets should possess functions for comparing quality and price, continuously optimize business processes and transaction controls, and selectively source required products.

VII. Increasing Centralized Procurement Capacity

Actively promote standardized design and standardized selection, consolidate similar demand, and vigorously advance centralized procurement. Enhance enterprise negotiation and coordination capabilities, improve overall efficiency. The headquarters of groups should, within fixed periods, unify the procurement of engineering, goods, or services required by all subsidiaries based on categorized and graded procurement lists. Organize multiple projects collectively through joint bidding or framework agreements using models like 'unified negotiation, unified signing' or 'unified negotiation, segmented signing.' For high-similarity, large-volume products, support joint procurement by central enterprises, provided no anti-competitive rules are violated.

VIII. Supporting Technological Innovation through Procurement

For innovative products and services produced by pioneering enterprises, innovation consortia, and start-ups, including those listed in the 'List of Central Enterprise Scientific and Technological Innovation Achievements for Promotion'—such as prototype equipment, first batch materials, or initial software—the enterprise may use negotiated or direct procurement methods, subject to economic feasibility. Pre-test and pilot-use are encouraged. When participating in procurement activities for prototypes (kits), first batches of materials, or initial software, only relevant supporting documentation is required. These are deemed to meet market share, usage effectiveness, and other requirements, and central enterprises need not impose additional review criteria. In key innovation areas such as space launch vehicles, chips, high-end numerical control machines, industrial robots, and advanced medical equipment, actively encourage central enterprises to lead in adopting innovative products.

IX. Strengthening Social Responsibility Implementation

(1) Vigorously Support SME Development. Central enterprises should support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in participating in procurement activities and must not unlawfully restrict suppliers based on location, ownership form, organizational structure, registered capital, equity structure, or operating years. Encourage enterprises to provide active support to SMEs through reserved procurement quotas, priority payment arrangements, etc.

(2) Firmly Implement Policy-oriented Procurement Requirements. Accurately implement the Party Central Committee and State Council's directives on comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization, poverty alleviation, and border region development. Allocate a certain proportion of procurement budgets in advance, scientifically determine procurement methods, and prioritize purchasing products from impoverished regions, old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, and border regions. Actively support designated assistance and export-oriented enterprises in accessing self-operated e-commerce platforms and market sales channels.

X. Organization and Implementation

(1) Strengthen Organizational Safeguards. All central enterprises must give high priority to procurement and supply chain management, reinforce group headquarters' management functions, further enhance procurement control capabilities, integrate with practical optimization and institutional setup, and establish a robust cross-departmental coordination mechanism. Strengthen centralized management of planning, procurement, production, logistics, and other business activities to achieve precise resource allocation and rapid service response. Drive the transformation of procurement management toward supply chain management, comprehensively enhancing strategic support, value creation, risk control, and resource protection capabilities.

(2) Establish Comprehensive System Frameworks. All central enterprises must follow the requirements of this guidance, refer to relevant national and industry standards, and promptly develop or revise procurement management systems and detailed rules. Clearly define procurement planning, implementation, contract signing, and execution procedures and control points. Establish a complete procurement management system covering all procurement methods, rigorously manage internal procurement system construction, and ensure procurement is procedural, traceable, and compliant.

(3) Strengthen Monitoring and Implementation. The Ministry of Finance and SASAC will fully utilize centralized enterprise procurement and trading online monitoring systems and other tools to further strengthen supervision over procurement management. Incorporate procurement outcomes into the central enterprise procurement and supply chain management evaluation system. Hold accountable any violations of rules, regulations, or laws discovered during procurement activities. Rigorously strengthen internal control and audit supervision of procurement operations. Establish a robust 'network + monitoring' mechanism, enhance publicity, guidance, and oversight to foster a healthy environment for the normative and healthy development of central enterprise procurement.

Source: NDRC Official Website