Ministry of Communications, Administration of Invitation and Submission of Bids for Highway Construction Projects Measures

Promulgated: June 6 2002
Effective: July 15 2002
Interpreting authority: Ministry of Communications
Applicability: These Measures apply to invitation and submission of bids for highway construction projects in the PRC. For the purposes of these Measures, "highway projects" includes new construction, upgrading and erection of highways, highway bridges, highway tunnels and their related supporting facilities such as safety, supervision, telecommunications, tolling, landscape, service and administration facilities (Article 2). Where a highway construction project is financed by loans or aid funds from international financial organizations or foreign governments and the financing parties have different provisions for invitation and submission of bids, such provisions shall be applicable provided they are not contrary to the public interest of the PRC (Article 56).

Main contents: Invitation for bids is mandatory for any highway project that has a total investment of over Rmb30 million or an appraised single contract value of over Rmb2 million, unless the project involves national security, State secrets, disaster relief or poverty relief (Article 3). Invitation for bids for such a project shall be open to all enterprise legal persons that satisfy the conditions for entry into the highway construction market (Article 5). Conditions precedent for invitation for bids include approval of the preliminary design, secured availability of project funds and establishment of the project legal person (Article 7). Invitation for bids for highway projects shall be public unless otherwise required by laws or regulations, but private invitation for bids may be used if a project is small-scale, has special technical requirements or urgently requires completion (Article 11). Bid invitation documents for national highway framework or State key highway projects shall be approved by provincial communication authorities and filed with the Ministry of Communications, and bid invitation documents for highway projects financed by loans or aid funds from international financial organizations or foreign governments shall be approved by the Ministry of Communications (Article 19).
Related legislation: PRC, Highway Law, Oct 31 1999, CLP 1999 No.10 p7 & CLP 1998 No.10 p46 and PRC, Invitation and Submission of Bids Law, Aug 30 1999, CLP 1999 No.8 p34
Repealed legislation: Administration of Invitation and Submission of Bids for Highway Projects Measures, Aug 26 1989