At Chengdu's Trading and Service Center for Public Resources, big electronic screens roll out the latest information on project biddings that have just opened.

As the first and only city-level integrated public resource trading platform in China, the center, which opened in February 2013, is regarded as a revolutionary reform in the field of public resource trading.

Bidding at the Chengdu Trading and Service Center for Public Resources. Photos provided to China Daily

The center consists of an office for bid launches, an office for selection of relevant experts, an assessment area, a supervision office and the information release area.

Every part of the operation in the center is done electronically, so all procedures are monitored by computers.

Applications are done online, which greatly reduces the chances of illegal competition activities, such as conspired bidding and contacting bids.

After the bidding stage, a group of experts are selected from a database to assess the bid results and the monitoring personnel re-examine the bids as well as the assessment procedures. Automatic risk alarm systems are included in different links to reduce illegal operations to the lowest level.

"It's just like a production line. Different departments manage the registration, trading and supervision respectively. We operate accordingly and no single part can decide the final result," said Luo Jiuze, an official from the center.

According to Luo, who used to work in the trading center for land and mining rights in Chengdu, the market is playing a more important role in the system, while there is less room for behind-the-scenes operations compared with the past.

The center established a centralized management system for bid bond receipts and payments.

"It has both simplified the procedures for bidders and ensured our rights by ruling out human factors during the trading process," said Yang Yi, a local bidder from the construction business.

Chengdu's Trading and Service Center for Public Resources has been focusing on services to maximize the benefits with market-oriented allocation of public resources since its establishment.

Before the center was built, Chengdu had four separate trading or service platforms, including government procurements, land auctions and outdoor advertisements, related to the city's construction projects.

The platforms were managed by different governmental units respectively.

There were no specific trading sites for other related resources, such as the disposal of government or institution assets and franchise rights trading.

"There were many loopholes in the old system. It was hard to prevent corruption when a department was both involved in the supervision and trading of certain public resources," said an official from the city's development and reform commission.

To ensure standardized operations, efficiency and fairness in the trading of public resources the Chengdu Municipal Government proposed a unified service platform.

The new center, which is an independent trading platform that belongs to the municipal government, provides centralized trading services for public resources in five main categories.

After more than year of operation, the center has formed a relatively mature and scientific operation system.

By June, the center completed 8,469 transactions, which were worth a total of 156.5 billion yuan ($25.55 billion). The center achieved a premium of 23.4 billion yuan.

The city further expanded the range of experiments by promoting a similar system in its lower-level administrations.

So far, 14 districts or counties in Chengdu have established their own trading and service centers for public resources and 31 towns or communities in the region have set up trading and service stations for public resources.

All smaller construction projects and government purchases of categories unlisted in the current catalogue are required to use the lower-level public resource trading and service platforms for centralized trading and monitoring.

According to Chengdu's development and reform commission, the city's economic planner, the multi-level structure ensures fairness as well as openness in public resource and service trading by separating the rights of decision-making, supervision and operation.

The city put in place regulations to clarify the responsibilities of different parties involved in the supervision and administration of public resource trading.

"Chengdu has led the nation both in the depth and scope of reform in the public resources trading sector," said Gao Zhongwei, deputy director of Sichuan University's Research Center for Corruption Prevention.

Gao said he believed the measures would help Chengdu enhance its mechanism for market-oriented allocation of recourses and boost social equality as well as execution of law.

The reception hall of the Trading and Service Center for Public Resources in Chengdu.

 

liuxiangrui@chinadaily.com.cn