China's public procurement, resource transaction expand to more sectors

Public procurement and public resource transactions in China have expanded into more sectors over the past two years, with continuous improvements of the relevant trading systems, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said on Wednesday.

Since China issued a new guideline for national public resource transactions at the end of last year, the types of resources that can be traded have gradually increased.

Previously, public resource transactions mainly focused on areas such as construction project bidding, government procurement, and transfer of land use and mining rights.

Under the new guideline, the scope has broadened to public resources, including natural resources, assets and equity, and environmental rights, which are suitable for market-based allocation. For instance, this includes the transfer of income rights from rural collective-owned assets and the sale or lease of state-owned assets in administrative institutions.

Besides, in July, China announced that procurement by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be integrated into the national public resources transaction system, which will benefit the overall industrial and supply chains in terms of management and stability.

"Including procurement made by SOEs in the public resources transaction system will give full play to the large-scale purchasing power of these enterprises, promoting the digital and green developments of the transaction system," said Hu Dajian, assistant to the president of the CFLP.

Another notable trend in public procurement is the decline in volume.

In 2023, the total transaction volume of public procurement in China reached 46 trillion yuan (about 6.3 trillion U.S. dollars), down 4.16 percent year on year. The transaction volume in key sectors, such as construction project bidding, government procurement, land use and mining rights transfers, and state-owned asset transactions, decreased by four percent to 21.9 trillion yuan compared to 2022. And this downward trend continued in the first 10 months of 2024.

"In both government and SOE procurement, improving procurement quality and efficiency is the key part. Overexpansion of procurement scale should be avoided; instead, the focus of attention should be on whether the procurement can effectively support economic restructuring, technological innovation, and balanced regional development. While the overall volume of public procurement has decreased, its structure is shifting in a positive direction, with greater support for independent innovation and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," said Hu.

In the past two years, the annual procurement volume of central SOEs has averaged around 13 trillion yuan (about 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars), benefiting over two million businesses of all sizes across industrial chains.

China's public procurement, resource transaction expand to more sectors

UN officials on Tuesday expressed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Syria due to the latest violent attacks in the country's northwestern part starting from late November.

On Nov. 27, a major rebel offensive rocked the western countryside of Aleppo, the first significant attack since 2016. The assault was carried out by a coalition of rebel groups, mainly the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaida-linked extremist organization, with the aim of penetrating government-held territories.

When speaking to a bi-weekly press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, spokesman for the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Jeremy Laurence said that the Office has documented a number of extremely concerning incidents resulting in multiple civilian casualties, including a high number of women. and children

"We are in the process of verifying deadly attacks impacting civilians. For example, on November 29, four civilian men were killed reportedly as a result of multiple ground-based strikes by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) hitting an area hosting the Aleppo university student dormitories in the Hamdaniyah neighborhood in the western part of the city of Aleppo. According to information gathered by our Office, all victims were students of the university and, following that, many other students fled the university complex," Laurence said.

Acting Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Syria Christina Bethke warned that local hospitals are overwhelmed, with thousands of injured having been admitted in the past four days alone.

"Insecurity and restrictions on movement have forced around 65 non-governmental organizations that were previously operational in Aleppo and Idlib to suspend their activities, and in many cases, this is leaving health facilities overwhelmed or out of service. That includes one of Idlib's largest hospitals, Bab Al Hawa, and Al Razi Hospital in Aleppo, both of which are reduced to serving emergency cases only and leaving countless patients in limbo," she said.

OHCHR, WHO raise alarm over worsening humanitarian situation in Syria