Notice from the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission on Accelerating the Promotion of Remote, Cross-Location Bid Evaluation

NDRC Regulations No. 807 of 2025

To the bidding guidance and coordination departments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; to the China Bidding & Tendering Association; and to the China Bidding & Tendering Public Service Platform:
  To implement the requirements of the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Innovating and Improving Systems and Mechanisms to Promote the Standardized and Healthy Development of the Bidding and Tendering Market" (Guobanfa [2024] No. 21), and to accelerate the nationwide promotion of remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluation, we hereby issue the following notice regarding relevant matters.

   1. Strengthen Resource Sharing
  1. Clearly define the scope of remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluation projects. Each provincial-level tendering and bidding guidance & coordination authority should collaborate with relevant administrative oversight departments to determine, based on actual conditions, the types and scale criteria for tendering projects that will adopt remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations, and then publicly announce these details to society.
  2. Establish a shared directory for the evaluation expert pool. The organization responsible for building the evaluation expert pool should, based on technical standards, define the scope of shared resources among evaluation experts and compile a resource directory for the pool. Additionally, the organizing unit must simultaneously publish the standard rates and payment methods for evaluation services provided by experts in this pool.
  3. Establish a shared directory of bidding evaluation venue workstations. Public Resource Trading Centers or other electronic trading system operation service providers should strengthen the centralized management of workstation resources in bidding evaluation venues, identifying suitable locations that can accommodate remote, geographically dispersed evaluations. These venues will then be compiled into a comprehensive directory of shared workstation resources for bidding evaluations. Additionally, Public Resource Trading Centers or other electronic trading system operation service providers must publicly disclose arrangements and cost-payment channels for bidders' meal and accommodation needs. If transaction service fees are charged, the applicable fee standards and payment methods must also be clearly announced.

   II. Enhance the Collaborative Service Mechanism
  4. Establish a collaborative mechanism between the main and sub venues. The entity responsible for tendering shall designate the Public Resource Trading Center or other electronic trading system operation service providers selected for on-site transactions as the primary venue (hereinafter referred to as the "Main Venue") for bid evaluation. Meanwhile, the secondary venue (hereinafter referred to as the "Sub Venue"), located elsewhere, will assist the Main Venue in conducting remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations. The Main Venue is tasked with providing the necessary electronic trading systems and specialized tools required for remote, cross-location bid evaluations, while the Sub Venue will work closely with the Main Venue to ensure smooth execution of tasks such as expert selection, venue workstation allocation, expert identity verification, project evaluation, signing of evaluation reports, document archiving, and handover of relevant leads. In the event that the Sub Venue encounters issues such as experts being unable to participate in the evaluation, abnormal workstation conditions, or system malfunctions, it must promptly notify the Main Venue. The tendering entity will then address these challenges by re-initiating the expert selection process, rescheduling the project evaluation timeline, or organizing another round of remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations as needed.
  5. Improve the secondary venue compensation mechanism. The main and secondary venues should negotiate and agree on a cost-sharing and compensation arrangement for remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations: - If the main venue charges fees while the secondary venue does not, the main venue should appropriately cover a portion of the secondary venue’s operational costs. - If both the main and secondary venues charge fees, the main venue can collect the fees centrally and then provide the secondary venue with a corresponding cost compensation. Alternatively, the main and secondary venues may independently set their own fee structures—up to the local rates applicable at the main venue—and publicly announce these rates in the shared workspace directory, collecting fees directly from bidders. - If the main venue does not charge fees while the secondary venue does, the secondary venue must establish its own fee structure reasonably, ensuring it does not exceed the rate it would charge if serving as the main venue, and then publicly disclose this rate in the shared workspace directory, collecting fees directly from bidders. When determining or adjusting fee standards, both the main and secondary venues must strictly adhere to relevant regulations governing price management and fee collection practices.
  6. Strengthen bid evaluation service support. During remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations, if bid evaluation experts require meals, accommodation, or other similar arrangements, the tendering party shall provide these services in accordance with the methods outlined in the venue and workstation-sharing directory, and shall bear the associated costs. Meanwhile, public resource trading centers or other electronic transaction system operation service providers should enhance personnel coordination and ensure adequate on-duty coverage to effectively support remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluation activities.
  7. Clearly define the remuneration standards for expert services. For experts participating in remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluation projects, the remuneration can either follow the standard set by the expert database where the expert is registered, or it can be jointly determined through negotiation between the entities responsible for establishing the main and sub-site expert databases. Experts are encouraged to adopt the principle of "choosing the higher rate over the lower one" when setting the remuneration for sub-site experts.

   3. Clarify Responsibilities Between Main and Secondary Venues
  8. Clearly define the administrative oversight responsibilities for both the main and sub-venues. For projects involving remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations, the administrative oversight department at the main venue will be responsible for conducting administrative supervision, while the sub-venue should actively cooperate. If the sub-venue identifies any leads related to suspected disciplinary or legal violations, it must promptly transfer these to the main venue, which will then report them to the relevant disciplinary inspection and law enforcement authorities.
  9. Clearly define responsibilities for on-site management and document preservation. The main venue and the secondary venue are each responsible for maintaining trading order within their respective areas, providing reminders and dissuading any illegal or non-compliant activities, while also documenting and archiving such incidents. The secondary venue must cooperate with the main venue in carrying out witnessing duties and promptly hand over all relevant materials to the main venue. The main venue is tasked with collecting and organizing the complete set of project bidding and tendering documents.
  10. Clearly define the accountability for expert assessment and management between the main and sub-venues. Each venue is responsible for documenting the on-site performance of local evaluation experts. After the evaluation process concludes, both the main and sub-venues must independently submit the experts' performance records to the respective units responsible for maintaining their expert databases. These database units will then conduct the assessment and management of their respective experts in the evaluation panel.

  IV. Strengthen Organizational Support
  11. Strengthen the software and hardware foundation. All regions should progressively optimize the functions of relevant platform systems in accordance with technical standards, upgrade and renovate workstation facilities at bid evaluation venues, and ensure the smooth implementation of remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluations. Adhering to the principles of economy and efficiency, make full use of existing software and hardware resources to avoid redundant construction and unnecessary waste of resources. In principle, newly built or renovated platform systems and venue workstations must align with established technical standards.
  12. Strengthen system and data security protection. All regions should establish security protection systems tailored to remote, geographically dispersed bid evaluation processes, clearly defining requirements for cybersecurity measures, data encryption and backup, access control for expert information, security auditing and monitoring, and confidential management of personnel. Efforts should be made to minimize the exposure of bid evaluation experts and project information, while ensuring thorough confidentiality of all related data.
  13. Strengthen promotion, outreach, and training. Local areas should use announcements, special columns, and other formats to promote and introduce remote, cross-location bid evaluations to business entities. At the same time, actively organize comprehensive training sessions for all involved parties, including procurers, agency representatives, evaluation experts, and staff from public resource trading centers.
  Guidance and coordination bodies responsible for bidding and tendering across various regions should earnestly play a leading role, strengthening collaborative efforts with all administrative oversight departments. Meanwhile, units tasked with establishing expert evaluation panels and public resource trading centers must actively implement these initiatives. All regions are encouraged to advance remote, cross-city bid evaluations within their provinces on a regular basis, adhering to established technical standards. Building on this foundation, they should enhance inter-provincial cooperation through agreements, memoranda of understanding, and other mechanisms. This includes clearly defining key collaboration areas such as sub-site compensation, service guarantees, and regulatory coordination, thereby accelerating the wider adoption of cross-provincial remote bid evaluations. State-owned enterprises are also encouraged to follow the guidelines outlined in this notice when conducting remote, cross-location bid evaluations. The China Public Service Platform for Bidding and Tendering should establish a nationwide network of shared nodes for remote, cross-location bid evaluations, continuing to provide robust technical support based on principles of openness, neutrality, sharing, and compatibility. The National Development and Reform Commission will collaborate with the China Association for Bidding and Tendering, along with relevant participating organizations, to continuously refine and improve technical standards in light of practical application experiences, ensuring these standards remain both scientifically sound and highly operational. Finally, regions are urged to promptly report any valuable practices or significant developments related to the implementation of remote, cross-location bid evaluations.

Office of the National Development and Reform Commission
September 5, 2025