Taiwan ranked 5th among 59 countries in the factor of “Government Efficiency”, according to WCY2012 (World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012) recently issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Last year, the ranking was 10th. Specifically, the ranking of the sub-factor “Business Legislation” under this factor is 18th, a tremendous improvement of 10 from the previous 28th, representing Taiwan’s best ever performance in this sub-factor.
For the ranking of “Public sector contracts are sufficiently open to foreign bidders” which is the sub-item of Business Legislation, Taiwan also had a substantial rise of 12 (from the previous 35th to the current 23rd). This ranking is better than those of Switzerland, Canada, the United States, mainland China, South Korea and Japan. In this regard, Taiwan’s commitment to fair and open competition in government procurement has obtained international recognition.
The Public Construction Commission (PCC) indicates that Taiwan became the member of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) on July 15, 2009. From then on, Taiwan has opened its GPA market to the suppliers of GPA Member States (42 countries at present). A total of 2415 contracts under GPA coverage were awarded by entities in year 2011. Among them, 393 contracts were awarded to foreign suppliers.
In addition, the PCC held meetings or seminars of government procurement with foreign entities or organizations in recent years. For example, in order to facilitate mutual understanding, the PCC jointly held Taiwan-Japan Conference on Public Construction with Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It also jointly held Taiwan - EU Government Procurement Seminar with European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan.
As for establishing open and mobile procurement environment, the PCC actively implements Government e-Procurement System (GEPS). From 2011, the information of tender notice and award notice have been freely accessible through internet for the users of Android smartphones, iPhones and iPads. So far, over 80,000 hits have accessed the GEPS through the use of mobile information. In 2012, the PCC had provided the service of e-tender documentation for downloading via smartphones. By doing so, suppliers can participate the tendering process more conveniently.
At present, PCC is actively implementing a number of measures in order to improve the environment of government procurement. For instance, encouraging the adoption of the most advantageous tender for the procurement of technical services; promoting design-build contract for construction works； soliciting of inter-entity supply contracts for technical service and project management service； promoting senior civil servants’ participation as member of procurement evaluation committee in the spirit of mutual assistance among entities; developing an expert-assisted review system for design data; stipulating provisions of arbitration in construction-related model contracts for solving contractual disputes by arbitration. By doing the above, it is expected that the government efficiency of Taiwan will be improved further in the future.