At the exchange meeting of the UN project services held Monday during the ongoing fourth Beijing International Hi-Tech Industries Week, Lena Musum with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) explained that the UN Development Program purchases about US$600 million worth of commodities and services each year.

She said she hopes that Chinese companies would visit their recently revised website address of www.unops.org and register there so that they can directly contact Chinese companies when necessary.

Lauzent Raguin, of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , also said that the annual purchase volume of his organization in the past years was about US$1 billion, but the orders UNHCR placed with China in the previous five years were worth just US$2.4 million, and the commodities were supplied by 19 Chinese companies.

The UNHCR official also said she hopes more Chinese companies directly contact UN organizations to get more orders from UN establishments.

Musum disclosed that so far the UN has not worked out the detailed purchasing plan for this year. But judging from what was done in previous years, commodities purchased by UN establishments were mostly medicines, plastic commodities, computer equipment, chemical products, machinery, and foodstuffs except alcoholic drinks.

She added services connected with the purchasing was concentrated in the fields of engineering, environmental protection, training, ports, electricity generation, transport, banking, agriculture and the forestry industry.

She said that prices are not always the most important factors in getting bids, but to win a bid, the prerequisite is to be in line with various regulations for the procurement.

(China Daily 05/14/2001)