Mr. Freddie Hoeglund, CEO of European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT); Miss Tiffany Huang of Baker & McKenzie, Taipei; and Mr. Han-Kuang Wang, General Manager of Siemens Taiwan, visited Dr. Jenn-Chuan Chern, Minister of the Public Construction Commission (PCC) on June 4th, and had a fruitful conversation regarding the participation of public constructions and investment issues for European businesses in Taiwan. The ECCT applauded Minister Chern for his leading PCC in promoting the most advantageous tender, design-build contract, and dispute-settlement by arbitration.
The ECCT believed that the efforts of the government to continue improving the environment for investment will definitely ignite the interests of major international companies in investing in Taiwan and thus enhance the quality of government procurement. However, there is still room for improvement in some entities, such as slow action in amending construction contract and preference for contract awarded by the lowest tender. For example, the power plant renovation of Taiwan Power Company, and the legal service of CPC Corporation, Taiwan were both awarded to the lowest tender, instead of the best offer. The ECCT proposed to cooperate with the PCC in conducting a survey among foreign suppliers for the performance of procuring entities. The entities with good performance will be awarded the Golden Apple Award, while those with poor performance the Sour Apple Award.
Minister Chern is grateful for the suggestions from the ECCT in creating a better procurement environment in Taiwan. He also indicated that Premier Jiang asked all ministers to supervise the implementation of major public construction projects in person, so that to improve implementation schedule, and stimulate economic growth. The Premier also instructed the PCC to present the implementation of major construction projects in the monthly Executive Yuan assemblies. Several enhancement measures have been adopted by the PCC to make the construction industry environment better, including promoting the most advantageous tender for engineering services, instead of the lowest tender; promoting design-build contract and the most advantageous tender for construction projects; promoting settlement of contract disputes by arbitration in a timely manner. These measures were applauded by domestic and foreign suppliers. The promotion of most advantageous tender has shown positive results, nearly 90% of engineering services are awarded to the most advantageous tender; the value of design-build contract and the most advantageous tender has accumulated to NT$ 16 billion from January to May 2013, more than that in the entire year of 2012 (NT$ 9.9 billion).
The ECCT applauded what the PCC has done and hopes that these enhancement measures will continue on after the merging of the PCC with the Ministry of Transportation and Construction. The PCC welcomes the survey proposed by the ECCT. As for the issues of slow action of contract amendments and the lowest tender for legal service, the PCC will look into these issues.