Officials with the Beijing Development Planning Commission announced yesterday that the potential bidders had each met the deadline of November 30 to buy bid papers.

They are now required to file official bids by December 28 with the winners being known next month.

"The outcome of the bidding promotion is much better than we have expected," said Liu Zhi, vice-director of the Beijing Development Planning Committee.

"Enterprises showed great enthusiasm for the seven projects being out to tender, such as the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre, Beijing Olympic Green and National Stadium projects."

The 81 potential bidders - some of which are alliances of several companies - had bought a total of 187 bidding papers by the end of last month. Each paper retailed at US$800.

"Companies and alliances that bought the tendering documents and decide to compete for the projects should file their bids by December 28," said Liu, who is also a senior official with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Panels comprising domestic and foreign specialists will evaluate and choose candidates from among the bidders by the end of next month.

Liu said 31 of the 81 entities are Chinese mainland enterprises, while another 12 are from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The remaining 30 bidders come from 12 foreign countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany and Australia.

Several multinationals of the world's top 500 companies are among those seeking tenders for their projects. But Liu said the names of the bidders are unavailable since all of them signed a confidentiality document with the planning committee when buying bid papers.

In addition to the bidding for Olympic venues and relevant facilities, Beijing also released a traffic plan for improving its transport network and management to offer first class urban transport services for the Games.

Now the plan is soliciting public comments and proposals. People may visit www.beijing-2008.org or call (86-10-68052299 ext 6550 to offer their opinions and suggestions about the city's traffic system.

(China Daily December 3, 2002)