May 23, 2012
Translated by Zhu Na
 
The Ministry of Finance published an announcement on its official website yesterday signaling the department's intention to strengthen the management of central government procurement.

According to the announcement, central departments are forbidden from buying high-end products that are obviously beyond the basic needs of their office.
 
The document also states that central government departments should take the lead in implementing government procurement policy by purchasing genuine software, energy saving and environmentally-friendly products and domestically produced products.
 
It also says that the central departments should strictly enforce regulations that manage government procurement of imported products. In principle, governments should not purchase imports if the domestic industry producing such products is already well developed.
 
Official statistics reveal that the amount of money spent on total government procurement increased from 293 billion yuan in 2005 to 842 billion yuan in 2010, an average annual growth of 23.5 percent.
 
An official from Ministry of Finance said that last year 900 billion yuan was spent on government procurement, based on the 10 percent growth rate, it is expected that the amount of money spent on government procurement this year will exceed 1 trillion yuan.
 
Links and Sources
MOF: 关于加强中央预算单位政府采购管理有关事项的通知 
Beijing News: 中央单位禁配超需产品
Beijing Times财政部：中央单位须带头买国货 禁配高档产品