The Lowest Bid

In China, the tendering and bidding system has become an inseparable part of the construction industry.In the 1980's, at the preliminary establishment stage of the tendering and bidding system, 90% of tendering was carried out in the way that the buyer and the seller discussed the price. This method had contravened the main objectives of the tendering and bidding system, and it could not manifest the competition mechanism. In the 1990's the tendering and bidding system improved gradually. The majority of construction projects used the invitation tenders. The Tendering and Bidding Law was issued on January 1, 2000. This symbolizes the tendering and bidding for construction projects entered into the management-by-law stage. The management of tendering and bidding became fully integrated with the construction market management system.Our country has already joined the WTO, so our construction market will also implement the opening and admittance policies. The lowest price system is the usual evaluation standard for tenders overseas. It is especially applied widely in the overseas architectural engineering. And it has become a kind of international practice. The implementation of lowest price system makes it possible to integrate our country's construction market with the international market and makes the construction enterprises to be adaptable to international competition.The lowest price system inevitably has some problems in the implementation. But these problems are not the reasons to deny the lowest price system. We should analyze the problems and seek ways of solving the problems.The lowest price system is an inevitable trend for our country's tendering and bidding system development. It will follow the international standard with Chinese characteristic.