United Nations procurement can provide huge business opportunities for Chinese enterprises, and these companies should learn more about the transparency of the procurement system, according to Bernard Pacaud, supply and procurement officer at the UNICEF Office for China.

"With so many UN organizations procuring various goods and services, you might feel daunted by the size and complexity of the UN system. Do not be," he said.

Pacaud was speaking on Tuesday at the Second International Forum of Chinese Confucian Businesspeople, which is being held in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The UN, including its many affiliated agencies, represents an international market of US$3 to 4 billion annually for suppliers of virtually all types of goods and services.

Pacaud emphasized that UN procurement is based on a transparent tendering system with contracts going to the lowest evaluated offers meeting bidding conditions and quality requirements.

"Each agency has adopted common guidelines for procurement, which were developed by the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group," said Pacaud.

For an annual fee of US$100, any enterprise can be listed in the database of UN suppliers. Most agencies have a pre-qualification mechanism.

"After registration, you just need to find out what each agency's procurement requirements are and then market your goods and/or services aggressively," said Pacaud.

According to Dong Hong, assistant director of the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges under the Ministry of Commerce, some Chinese enterprises have entered the UN procurement system, but have missed opportunities because they lack experience in marketing.

The Ministry of Commerce reports that before 2002, Chinese enterprises provided around US$30 million of goods and services to the UN annually, making up only around 0.7 percent of the UN's total procurement. The figure soared to US$80 million in 2003.

However, because of unfamiliarity with the UN procurement system a large proportion of China-made products and services provided to UN agencies flow into the UN from third parties.

"The result is that the price competitiveness of the suppliers is weakened in the international bidding, profit goes to the third party and the direct exchange and transparency between UN agencies and the suppliers is rather poor," said Dong.

(China Daily September 22, 2004)