Taiwan's Unsolicited Proposal Approach: Risks and Rewards

By Grace Y. Lei and Marcus Clinch, Winkler Partners, Taipei

Taiwan's Public Construction Committee implemented the Guidelines for Evaluation of Unsolicited Proposals by the Arranging Authority (the Guidelines) in March 2002 with little fanfare, and few in the private sector seemed to take notice. One year and 11 unsolicited proposals later, however, interest appears to be growing as companies become aware of the Guidelines and the opportunities they present.

The Guidelines establish a framework for handling unsolicited proposals - an obscure and so far unexploited build-operate-transfer (BOT) variant provided for in only general terms in Article 46 of Taiwan's BOT Law.¹ This novel approach to public-private partnerships allows a company - on its own initiative - to submit a proposal to develop a public works project under a BOT-type arrangement. Most of the 11 post-Guidelines proposals submitted to date have received initial approval. The central government is closely monitoring the progress and is providing much-needed assistance to agencies involved. A number of priority public works sectors have also been identified for which the central government hopes the private sector will submit unsolicited proposals.