It was "improper" to consider only foreign brands when calling
for public tenders in governmental procurements, Guangzhou's
vice-mayor said yesterday.
Vice-mayor Su Zequn was responding to a complaint from Wang
Ruixiang, a deputy to the city's people's congress who also runs an
audio systems firm, against the organizers of the 2010 Asian Games
for shutting out domestic brands from a bidding process.
"I will personally look into the case," Su said.
He said he learned of the complaint during this year's people's
congress of Guangzhou, which concludes today.
"Although my audio products won the bid for this year's Olympic
Games in Beijing, I'm not even entitled to submit a bid for the
Asian Games in Guangzhou, for the simple reason that my product is
domestically made," Wang said earlier.
The organizing committee of the Asian Games has not responded to
Wang's complaint.
The businessman said he had encountered similar embarrassment
when he tried to bid for government procurements.
"If we are not given a fair opportunity to compete in the
domestic market, how can we grow strong enough to compete in the
global market?" he said.
Many shared Wang's view.
"Domestic firms, especially small and medium enterprises, are in
a very unfavorable position to get financial support for research
and development," Shi Jun, owner of a lighting firm in Guangzhou,
said.
Li Qingqing, an associate professor of economics at South China
Normal University, said China has a law that urges governmental
procurements to foster SME brands.
"The only problem is that it is not easy to supervise or punish
government departments when they fail to comply with it," Li
said.
(China Daily, February 22, 2008)