Editor's notes: PRC Government Procurement Law

Introduction
On 29 June 2002, the PRC, Government Procurement Law (中华人民共和国政府采购法)(GPL) was promulgated, which aims at the establishment of a comprehensive system of government procurement. Traditionally, government procurement in China has been conducted without reference to any uniform set of regulations, and has mainly been done by unrestricted administrative purchasing. The problems with this "system" (and we use the term loosely) are obvious. Wasteful use of fiscal funds, no uniform procurement proceedings or efficient supervisory systems, high degrees of local protectionism, a lack of transparency in proceedings and substantial levels of corruption have all marked government procurement in the past.

As a first step to regulating government procurement, starting in the mid 1990s, central and local level regulations were enacted in various municipalities on a trial basis.¹

About the time that the PRC, Invitation for and Submission of Bids Law (the Bidding Law) covering procurement for construction projects was enacted in 1999,² lawmakers began drafting the new GPL. Together the new GPL and the 1999 Bidding Law are the heart of China's government procurement system, and hence the interrelation of the two laws is a main focus of this overview.