Era of increased spending ends

Government procurement may have peaked last year as tougher regulations mean that huge increases in public expenditure are a thing of the past, a government official said.

The procurement budget will stay around 20 billion yuan ($3.22 billion), an amount similar to the 20.5 billion budget for 2012, said Wang Lida, director of the Central Government Procurement Center. 

The 2012 figure represented a jump of 20 percent year-on-year, but such increases are unlikely in the future, Wang said in an interview with China Daily.

The procurement budget has grown nearly 30-fold from when the center was established 10 years ago.

Tougher measures on spending, especially regarding the purchase of government vehicles, are now in force, he said.

Procurement by government offices exceeded 1.13 trillion yuan in 2011, accounting for 11 percent of public expenditure, according to Cheng Yuanzhong, deputy director of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Combined with spending for other purposes, such as education, healthcare, housing subsidies for low-income households, transportation and energy, the total figure exceeded 5 trillion yuan. 

This figure made China the largest public procurement market in the world, Cheng said. 

However, Cheng said, procurement has faced problems, such as a lack of information, and inefficiency.

Wang said public procurement accounts for about 10 percent of the world's total.

He promised that government agencies will increase transparency in the procurement process.