China today announced the launch of www.toubiao.info, a Web portal dedicated to facilitating international bidding and tenders transactions. The solution is the brainchild of the Development Gateway Foundation (www.dgmarket.com) under the World Bank, China Development Gateway (www.chinagate.com.cn) and China Bidding Ltd (www.chinabidding.com.cn).

The portal, the biggest of its kind in China, began trial operations on March 18 this year.

Toubiao is, in essence, the Chinese version of the Development Gateway Market (dgMarket), an online procurement platform run by the Development Gateway Foundation, whose services include providing bidding and tendering information, consultation, and promotion for governments and enterprises. With the addition of the Chinese version, dgMarket now operates in 18 languages including English, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

Toubiao provides Chinese enterprises with access to worldwide tenders. Similarly, it offers foreign companies and government agencies an insight to the Chinese bidding and tenders market.

Toubiao aims to publish over 60,000 valid bidding notices a year.

The international bidding and tenders market is flourishing; transaction volumes in developing countries are valued at about US$30 billion a year, while the global total stands at US$500 billion.

Countries actively involved in the international market include France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, the UK and US. According to research figures, information in the following areas are most sought after: construction, architecture, law, accounting, medical and laboratory equipment, optical and precision devices, watches and clocks, pharmaceuticals and related medical consumables, machinery, equipment and appliances, office and computing electronics, maintenance and installation services, manufactured products and materials, motor vehicles and trailers.

General users are given free access to certain information, while registered users who pay a fee have access to all information and services, including customized information feeds. Government agencies, enterprises and research institutions can publish their tendering information on the website at no charge.

(China.org.cn September 28, 2006)