Preparing for Beijing 2008

See here the latest on:

The "Ownership Tenders" for the major Olympic Venues
What opportunities to expect - our INFOPACKAGE project

Updated 11 April 2004

    Introduction - "Infopackage"
    The Ownership Tenders

        our comments

        brief initial overview and time schedule

        the prequalification round

    Present status

    Important Disclaimer
    Other Websites
    Other Documents and information

In 2002 and 2003 this website has tried to keep interested parties updated about the "Ownership Tenders", the tender procedure for the major Olympic venues.
The prequalification round is finished and most contracts have been signed, so our focus in this section has to be adapted. We have much more information, including pictures, available for our clients only. We organize seminars of typically 3 hours to give a more detailed overview.

• our main office is presently located within BSAM 's new office (Focus Place, Financial Street)
• Mr. Gilbert Van Kerckhove is appointed "Negotiation and Development Director"
• Ms. Sun Bin is appointed "Administration Director"

BSAM is appointed by the Beijing Municipal Government as the asset owner for the National Stadium and the National Swimming Center. BSAM manages a large share of the total assets of the Beijing Municipality.
See the provisional introduction on BSAM - we will soon show the new corporate brochure we are preparing for BSAM.

We are now winding up our assignment with BSAM after a very interesting and challenging year of work.
In the future we will migrate to a wider view on the projects that will prepare Beijing for the 2008 Olympics and call it "Business opportunities for 2008", taking out the word "Olympics" for reasons we always explain in our seminars. Or simply 'INFOPACKAGE"

Indeed, many feel lost when trying to understand how Beijing is handling the preparations for 2008.
Trying to find the right channel for certain projects, even closely related to the Olympics, is a great challenge as there is no standard answer. This is a major difficulty for large delegations without a clear focus and that come unprepared.

We are now working on our INFOPACKAGE to map the overall opportunities generated by the upcoming Olympics and the accelarated modernization of Beijing. For more details please contact us directly. We also started a new section with information on tenders that is just a sample; INFOPACKAGE will address this issue in detail.

The Ownership Tenders started in August 2002 and the process was basically concluded during 2003, except for the Shunyi Equestrian Park where the tender will be completed in the the first half of 2004.
We decided to keep a document to illustrate what was considered at an earlier stage as the most ideal "strategy": "2008ideas": for the record, a compilation of previous comments and suggestions regarding the procedure for the Ownership Tenders - update: 13 January 2003. Since then, many of the basic PPP principles had to be adapted to accomodate Chinese laws and decisions by the Government.
During the pre-qualification round (in 2002) the Beijing Municipal Government had tried as much as possible to address the concerns of the business community and the suggestions of all parties involved in preparing the pre-qualification documents.
Some may not be completely "happy" with the final aspects of the tendering process and/or the recent changes.
If potential investors have "serious objections": did they clearly explain their position to BDPC? Communication works both ways!
Did they send any feedback to us? See the earlier form "2008feedback"(PDF).
The tendering process went through constant changes and affected the channels companies should deal with when looking for opportunities. The changes in the process, largely due to the Chinese Procurement Laws, will actually give more opportunities for smaller companies to get a piece of the action.

Brief initial overview and time schedule

See a short overview of the 7 tenders that actually cover 8 projects, for most of the major new venues needed in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Revised on 20 April 2003 it gives a view on the situation in early 2003, initial investment estimates and time schedule. Since then, figures have changed quite a bit...

the prequalification round

On 25 October the BDPC officially announced the pre-qualification round in a press conference.
The "Pre-qualification and Call for Expression of Interest" documents were available since 28 October 2002 at BDPC, see details in the Pre-qualification Announcement.
The sales of the documents were closed on 30 November 2002. The list of the buyers remains confidential. Overall results were announced in a press conference on 2 December.
A first and only public Clarification meeting was held at BDPC on 6 December 2002. The attendants received corrections as well as lists of clarifications & answers to their questions.
BDPC extended the date for submission from 28 December 2002 to Sunday 5 January 2003.
On January 9, 2003 BDPC held a Press Conference to announce the preliminary results of the Pre-qualification round. A total of 30 consortia submitted 43 applications.See an overview of the prequalification round: documents sold and bids submitted.

Present status

Since January 2003 there was an obvious evolution in the tender process for the Ownership Tenders. We try here to give a very short overview, further details are available for our clients only, including pictures related to the design and other.

Project 1. National Stadium

• 39 prequalifications sets sold - 7 applications received on 5 January 2003
• 5 bidders (said to be from PRC, Taiwan Province, USA, Germany and France) were prequalified and were given the opportunity to purchase the tender documents on 21 April 2003.
• In late 2002 the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission (BMPC) launched the "Design Competition" for the National Stadium, see the Design Announcement for further details; the closing date was 20 November 2002. The pre-qualified bidders started the Concept Design Competition in December 2002 that ended in March 2003. The final winner was the "Bird's Nest" of the Herzog & de Meuron Consortium. See the details of the competition: pre-qualified bidders, jury members, the top 3 as well as some pictures taken at the exhibition on 26 March 2003.  
• by 9 May 2003 the prequalified bidders had to decide to submit a final offer; 4 confirmed to enter the final bid by 30 June 2003 but only 3 submitted valid bids
• the evaluation round was held in Boao (Hainan) because of SARS. G. Van Kerckhove was part of the evaluation team. Two consortia were short-listed consortia and on 9 August 2003 the CITIC GUOAN Consortium was declared the winner, setting up a CJV with BSAM who holds 58%  of "The National Stadium Co."
  
• In November 2003, "Herzog & de Meuron Consortium" signed the architecture contract
• The winning consortium, led by CITIC, holds the remaining 42% of the assets in the new Joint Venture company
• The ground-breaking ceremony was held on 24 December 2003
  

• 19 prequalification sets sold. On 5 January 2003, a total of three submissions for the prequalification round were received. It turned out some had to be disqualified so the legal minimum of three pre-qualified operators was not reached. As a result, the tender round was not successful. Subsequent search for suitable international operators was inconclusive. Obviously the ideal situation would be to have one single team that handles the details of design, engineering, operation, maintenance and others. Different operators can have a very different approach regarding the post-Olympic design.
• By April 2004 the choice of an operator remained to be clarified.
• BSAM is the asset owner.
• Beijing launched the international "Prequalification for Competition for the Design of the National Swimming Center"; the documents were available from 15 January to 19 February 2003. The deadline for submission was 20 February 2003 at 16:00. (Notice of 10 January 2003).
• See attached : the Announcement of the National Swimming Center Architecture Design Competition News Conference Brief; the speech by Mr. Wang Yuxi, the General Manager of Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd at the News Conference of the Competition for Architecture Design of the National Swimming Center held on 14 March 2003; it also mentions the ten companies prequalified for the design tender.
• The submission deadline for the design competition was 18 June 2003. The evaluation of the ten designs submitted was done in Boao, Hainan Island, because of SARS. G. Van Kerckhove was part of the evaluation team.
• The "Watercube"  was finally selected as the final design. The design contract was signed on 29 July 2003 with the winning consortium, headed by CSCEC and comprising CSCEC (Shenzhen) Design Company, PTW (Australia) and OVE ARUP (Australia). The design contract was signed on 29 July 2003.
• The ground-breaking ceremony for the Swimming Center was held on 24 December 2003.
  

• 24 prequalification sets sold and 6 applications received on 5 Jan. 2003;  4 bidders were prequalified.
• 3 bidders submitted proposals by 12 October 2003
• Beijing North Star Co. Ltd. and partners were declared the winners and said to invest US$ 164 million.

• 44 prequalification sets sold, 13 applications received on 5 Jan. 2003; 5 were prequalified.
• 5 bidders submitted proposals on 20 August 2003 (tender issued 20 May 2003)
• Winning consortium is headed by Beijing Urban Construction Investment & Development Group and contract was signed on 8 November 2008.
• the Olympic Village is expected to be completed about 6 months before the Games rather than the original 18 months. This is a result of the investigation trip done by BDPC in Europe in November 2002.

• 24 prequalification sets sold, 6 applications received on 5 Jan. 2003 and 4 prequalified.
• 3 bidders submitted proposals on 15 August 2003
• architectural design was awarded earlier to Burckhardt+Partner AG - for details see our article
• The CENCONS Consortium won and signed the contract on 30 September 2003.
  

• 20 prequalification sets sold, 6 applications received on 5 Jan. 2003, 5 bidders prequalified.
• 3 bidders submitted a proposal by 15 Sept. 2003 and the Tianhong Group won.

• 17 prequalification sets sold, only two bidders submitted their application on 5 Jan. 2003, under the legal minimum of 3 and as a result the two bids were returned unopened.
• In early 2003 the IOC decided on a substantial reduction of equestrian sports events and this impacts the planning and construction of the venue.
• Beijing decided to fund the venue.
• The Shunyi Olympic Office invited about 15 design companies for prequalification in Sept. 2003;tion of the venue; 9 companies were shortlisted. Tender documents were on sales from 12 to 16 December 2003.
• Proposals were entered on 1 March 2004. Shunyi is expected to announce the winner in April 2004.
  

With the nomination of Mr. Gilbert Van Kerckhove at BDPC, this new section was originally launched to improve and speed up communication and exchange of information related to the "Ownership Tenders". This section is now adapted to the previous assignment with BSAM and only intends to give a short overview.
The content of this section is not intended and should not be interpreted as "official information on behalf of the Beijing Municipal Development Planning Commission or BSAM" and should not be considered to be binding in any form.
The information is produced in good faith and is to be viewed as a tool to improve the communication between interested parties and the Beijing Municipality.
We decline any responsibility in case of error or omission.
Please note BDPC is now renamed to Beijing Municipal Government Development and Reform Commission.

We suggest to watch the information on the following official websites as they often post important announcements and bidding news. Be however aware these websites often change their structure and web address and are also often suitable to be viewed on Chinese PC only. It gives an idea about the information available (or rather, not available).