China has set the scale of government procurement at 200 billion yuan (some US$24.1 billion) in 2004, said an official of China's Ministry of Finance.

The actual volume is likely to reach 220 billion yuan (about US$26.5 billion), Zhou Chengyue, deputy director of the ministry's treasury department, told a recent training course on government procurement held in Beijing.

China introduced government procurement on a trial basis in 1996 and the volume of government procurement has been growing steadily since then. It hit 100.9 billion yuan (US$12.16 billion) in 2002 and is most likely to reach 150 billion yuan (US$18.07 billion) this year, said a government procurement official of the department.

"Although government procurement mainly targets domestic products, imported products made up a considerable proportion of it. Imported products are needed because Chinese enterprises are still incapable of making such products at present, like sophisticated cameras for reporters," said the official.

He said the emphasis of China's government procurement next year is on engineering projects, including projects in the fields of public facilities, greening and office buildings, a shift from goods and services that dominated government procurement in the past years.

Acknowledging that government procurement in China still has much room for growth, he said the volume of the country's government procurement in 2002 accounted for less than one percent of its gross domestic product, much lower than the average level of 10-15 percent in developed countries.

China aims to use government procurement to spur economic growth in less developed areas and small and medium-size enterprises, as well as for promoting environmental protection.

(People’s Daily December 8, 2003)