The newly issued "Measures for Electronic Bidding and Tendering of Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects in Shaanxi Province" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") will come into effect on January 1, 2015, and remain valid until January 1, 2020.

The "Measures" clarify that electronic bidding and tendering activities for housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects refer to all or part of the bidding and tendering transactions, public services, and administrative supervision activities completed in the form of data messages relying on the project electronic bidding and tendering system. The form of data messages has the same legal effect as paper-based bidding and tendering activities. The Shaanxi Province project electronic bidding and tendering system is divided into a trading platform, an administrative supervision platform, and a public information platform according to different functions. The above three platforms should maintain functional separation and operate independently while achieving interconnection and information sharing. The Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Shaanxi Province is responsible for the supervision and management of the province's project electronic bidding and tendering activities and shall investigate and deal with illegal acts in project electronic bidding and tendering activities in accordance with the law.

The "Measures" stipulate that the Shaanxi Construction Project Contracting and Trading Center is responsible for the construction and operation of the province's project electronic bidding and tendering trading platform (hereinafter referred to as the "provincial project electronic trading platform") and for ensuring the safe, stable, and reliable operation of the provincial project electronic trading platform. The construction project contracting and trading centers of cities with districts shall carry out electronic bidding and tendering trading activities relying on the provincial project electronic trading platform and their self-built supporting facilities and auxiliary systems. Qualified trading centers may build and operate independent project electronic trading platforms. Project electronic trading platforms built and operated by tenderees, bidding agencies, and other legal entities established according to law shall provide the necessary supervision channels for construction administrative departments, construction project bidding and tendering supervision and management agencies, and supervisory organs to implement supervision and accept complaints according to law, and open data interfaces for the interconnection and exchange sharing of project electronic bidding and tendering information. All parties involved in project electronic bidding and tendering shall use digital certificate encryption locks acceptable to the provincial project electronic trading platform to participate in electronic bidding and tendering activities. Construction project contracting and trading centers shall not restrict or exclude potential bidders by any means, shall not disclose information that should be kept confidential according to law, and shall not engage in fraud, collusive bidding, or provide convenience for fraud or collusive bidding.

The "Measures" also stipulate that the credit evaluation results of construction enterprises in Shaanxi Province shall be used in project electronic bidding and tendering activities. Parties to bidding and tendering activities shall use the province's unified electronic documents in the form of data messages, such as prequalification announcements, bidding announcements, invitations to bid, prequalification documents, and bidding documents. Tenderers shall use keys to log in to the provincial project electronic trading platform to organize bid opening activities and import complete electronic bidding documents into the auxiliary bid evaluation system as required. Electronic bidding documents shall be consistent with the content of paper bidding documents. In case of inconsistency, unless otherwise specified in the bidding documents, the electronic bidding documents shall prevail. If paper documents are required for certain links of electronic bidding and tendering, it shall be clearly stipulated in the bidding documents. If remote bid evaluation is adopted, the tenderer shall randomly select bid evaluation experts from the bid evaluation expert database of the provincial project electronic trading platform through the corresponding construction project contracting and trading center for bid evaluation. If electronic bid opening, bid evaluation, and award of contract cannot be carried out due to system failure of the provincial project electronic trading platform, paper documents may be used for bid opening, bid evaluation, and award of contract.