Content and organization of preliminary work.

The preliminary work of international project bidding and quotation includes the evaluation of the political environment of the country where the project is located and the investigation of the builder (the owner or the employer).

Economic activities are greatly affected by politics, so it is very important to understand the political system and political forces of the country where the project is located. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully analyze whether there may be conflict or even war in the host country in the near future, whether there are serious disputes among its political parties and their impact on the political situation, and then what impact may be produced on the implementation of the project. Another important aspect is to understand whether the host country and the Chinese government have established diplomatic relations and their foreign and economic policies. If the support and assistance of the business office of the Chinese Embassy in local China can be obtained during the bidding quotation and implementation of the project, it will not only obtain more comprehensive and accurate market information, but also help the contractor to establish a more friendly cooperative relationship with relevant local institutions, so as to lay a foundation for the entry of materials and personnel visas.

The investigation of the builder (owner or employer) is the basis of bidding quotation. At present, there are roughly three forms of international contracting projects contacted by Chinese Enterprises: first, investment and construction by local governments; Second, construction projects financed by loans from Asian and world banks or other international organizations; Third, private capital investment projects. For the first two forms, the focus is on the verification of official approvals from relevant governments (lending institutions) and the investigation of on-site construction conditions; The latter should be more cautious. We should not only confirm its legitimacy, but also carefully investigate the source of funds and the reliability of payment of the project construction party, and investigate its credit. A company was invited to bid by an owner in a South American country in 2008. During the preliminary investigation, the company found that the other company is a European office in the country and has no legal construction right. The contractor needs to bear the risk of project initiation and capital advance. After comprehensive evaluation, the company abandoned its bid. The preliminary work also includes investigating and understanding the equipment used by the owner or the employer's existing projects, which is very important for the price positioning, scheme determination and equipment selection in the bid. In the process of equipment selection in the bidding of power station project in the Republic of Palau, a Chinese enterprise originally considered using domestic equipment, but after investigating the existing power stations in Palau, it was found that the owners pay special attention to famous brands and durability. For example, they like the brand produced in Germany, while diesel oil generators are used to Perkins and caterpillar in the United States. Accordingly, the Chinese enterprise has made some necessary adjustments to the equipment selection and construction scheme.

To do a good job in the preliminary work, we should give play to the role of the on-site investigation team. International contracted projects have many particularities. Chinese enterprises should send appropriate professionals to the site to have a comprehensive understanding of the natural conditions, construction environment, price level, local laws and regulations, residents' living habits, geography and transportation, material supply, government agencies, etc. of the project location, so as to prepare scientific and reasonable bidding documents. Practice has proved that it is very important to organize a preliminary investigation team with rich experience and comprehensive knowledge. It can understand the local actual situation, establish a good relationship with the owner and understand the competitors in advance. When participating in the bidding for a parliament building in C ô te d'Ivoire, a company transferred capable forces to form an investigation team for preliminary investigation. The investigation found that although the parliament building project is the first large-scale project outside the capital constructed by the government of Kuwait to implement the relocation of the capital, the infrastructure of the city where the project is located is backward and there is a lack of building materials. It needs to be transported from the current capital more than 200 kilometers away, and the freight is high. In order to obtain building materials locally, the investigation team worked hard and finally found that there was a large stone processing plant abandoned for many years 10 kilometers away from the city where the project is located, stacked with nearly 10000 square meters of all kinds of graded stones abandoned due to years of war and economic recession. After conversion, it can basically meet the needs of the bidding project and save nearly 5 million yuan. The owner of the processing site is also willing to sell at a lower price, and finally signed a letter of intent with the enterprise. Accordingly, the company made a large price reduction on the basis of the original quotation, so as to win the bid in one fell swoop. After that, the project was successfully implemented and achieved huge profit returns.

Strive for flexible quotation

The preparation of bidding documents is a systematic and complex work, involving multiple disciplines and types of work, such as technology, economy, foreign language, finance, materials, quality, safety, etc., and requires unified coordination and mutual inclusion of all disciplines. Summarizing the bidding practice in various aspects, Chinese enterprises can adopt the following methods in international project quotation:

First, the unbalanced quotation method. Unbalanced quotation means that after the total price of the project is finalized, the itemized prices in the commercial bid in the bid can be reasonably adjusted according to the payment terms of the bidding document, so that the funds and project funds can be recovered as soon as possible, the investment risk can be reduced, and better economic benefits can be achieved without raising the total price to avoid affecting the winning of the bid. For example, after the total bid price is determined, the purchase price of equipment is moderately raised and the construction costs such as machinery and manpower are correspondingly reduced, which can reduce the risk of overseas investment and construction to a certain extent; For the sub items with small quantities shown in the drawings and expected increase in quantities, the unit price can also be appropriately increased, while the unit price can be appropriately reduced if the contents of the project are unclear. If the project owner requires that the bid price be determined at one time without adjustment, the bid price should be increased moderately, because the risk is difficult to predict. In short, unbalanced quotation is a reasonable price allocation based on the analysis of the specific terms of the owner's bidding document. The scale must be mastered when using it, so as not to cause the owner's disgust and lead to bid rejection.

The second is the alternative quotation method. If there are alternative schemes or no clearly specified schemes in the original tender, Chinese enterprises can make different schemes and quotations according to local conditions.

Third, the sudden price reduction method. In the era of fierce competition, quotation is an extremely confidential work. Competitors often spy on each other to inquire about each other's price. Therefore, when Chinese enterprises begin to compile bid and price, they can appropriately make it higher; When it is delivered before the bid deadline, the total price will be suddenly reduced by several percentage points, which will catch competitors off guard and establish the favorable position of the enterprise in bid evaluation.

Fourth, the breakeven long-term approach. After the economic recovery in Southeast Asia, the infrastructure market has great potential. Cambodia, for example, is undergoing post-war reconstruction. In this case, as long as it can enter the country's market, there may be a steady stream of engineering projects in the follow-up. Therefore, when preparing the bidding documents for a cement plant and self owned power plant in Cambodia, a Chinese enterprise reduced the total price from more than 100 million to 70-80 million. Its purpose is to squeeze across competitors, enter the country's market, then enter the Southeast Asian market and establish long-term cooperative relations in the region. The possible losses caused by winning the bid for the first time will be gradually made up through future cooperation projects. It is worth noting that this quotation strategy needs to be very careful to prevent the huge losses borne by enterprises with ultra-low quotation from falling down due to indigestion.

Construction organization design

Some enterprise managers unilaterally believe that as long as the price is appropriate, they can win the bid, and the construction organization design is only a form, which can not play a decisive role. In fact, the construction organization design of bidding is also an important work, which occupies a very important position in the technical indicators.

Firstly, the bidding construction organization design is prepared by the construction enterprise according to the bidding documents, construction specifications and standards in order to win the bid. It not only reflects the technical level and construction experience of the construction enterprise, but also reflects the organization level and management ability of the construction enterprise. In order to improve the bid winning rate, construction enterprises must compile high-quality bidding construction organization design that can reflect their level.

Secondly, the bidding construction organization design is the basis for the owner to investigate the ability of construction enterprises. Through the construction organization design, the owner shall first investigate the response of the construction enterprise to various relevant requirements put forward in the bidding document, such as whether the quality, progress, quotation and safety meet the requirements of the bidding document; Secondly, investigate the technical level and organization and management ability of construction enterprises, such as quality assurance ability, construction period assurance ability, cost assurance ability, safety assurance ability, civilized construction assurance ability, and technical ability to adopt new technologies and new materials; Third, it is the main basis for evaluating the technical bid, and the bid inviter will judge the advantages and disadvantages of the preparation of the bidding construction organization design.

Thirdly, the bidding construction organization design will directly affect the bidding price. In the bidding process of some enterprises, the group price is one group of people, and the preparation of bidding construction is another group of people, which are not ventilated or discussed with each other. This may lead to high or low accounting of equipment cost, measure cost and labor cost. Especially for large-scale projects, it is more necessary for pricing personnel to cooperate with construction organization personnel. A Chinese company bids for a stadium project in a country in South Central Africa. The project has large volume, complex structural form and difficult construction, and the construction period is only 18 months. At the initial stage, the company considered self construction of pile foundation works, which could save 2 million yuan compared with local engineering subcontracting; After investigation, it is found that if self construction is carried out, the score package of equipment procurement, mobilization and construction organization will be delayed for at least one and a half months, which will just catch up with the local rainy season and is basically not suitable for foundation construction, which will affect the total construction period. Therefore, the increased later cost will exceed the cost saved by self construction. Through the above analysis, the company decided to adopt the subcontracting of local companies, and adopted a more reasonable design in the preparation of construction organization. According to the calculation by the pricing personnel, on the premise of ensuring the construction period, the labor cost of 1.8 million yuan and the equipment cost and measure cost of 3 million yuan can be saved, which lays a foundation for the company's final bid winning. As the price team and the construction organization personnel worked together to provide a better construction organization design scheme, the project was completed 20 days ahead of schedule.

Familiar with local natural conditions and market

A Chinese company tendered for the construction of the ambitabe watumandri highway in the Republic of Madagascar, which is located in the low mountains and heavy hills along the east coast of tuamasina Province in the east of Malaysia. The local is divided into dry season and rainy season, and construction is not suitable in rainy season; The building materials, steel and asphalt in the local market need to be imported, and the cement and yellow sand can be supplied locally, but the stone production and gradation can not meet the engineering requirements. In view of the above natural conditions and market supply conditions, measure fees (such as drainage, finished product protection, etc.) shall be increased when necessary to make the total price more reasonable. The stone supply of the project is a difficulty. The stone mining plant recommended by the owner is about 20km away from the starting point of the project highway, with limited mining and processing capacity, backward technology and grading that can not meet the project requirements, especially for the simultaneous construction of multiple bid sections. After site survey, there are several quarries privately mined by local residents about 500m away from the starting point of the project, and the stone quality can fully meet the construction requirements. The company immediately contacted the local government and management departments of the country to negotiate the construction of its own stone mining and processing plant, which was soon approved. It is estimated that the self built mining and processing plant can not only ensure the simultaneous construction of multiple bid sections and ensure the construction period, but also greatly reduce the quotation. This enabled the company to successfully win the project.

Before bidding for international projects, it is also important to be familiar with the monetary policy of the country where the project is located. International contracted projects are generally settled directly in common currency (such as US dollar, euro, etc.), or according to the ratio of local currency to common currency. For the contracting enterprise, the relative stability of foreign exchange rate is very important. When bidding, the floating rate of currency shall be specified in the contract text. If it exceeds the necessary range, the owner shall compensate it, and it is suggested to quantify it in other reserve funds. The U.S. dollar and local currency are used for the settlement in proportion of the ang wa highway on Ma Island constructed by a Chinese company. Since the country's economy has been very stable at the time of bidding, and the price index has increased by an average of 2% ~ 5% every year, the company did not specify the compensation for inflation (price) after calculating according to this base at the time of bidding. However, during the implementation of the project, there was a temporary economic decline in the country, and prices rose by 6% ~ 10% in the past two years. Although enterprises have taken many measures, they still caused certain losses.

Work efficiency ratio and grasp of labor policy in the host country

Many international projects may need to employ local workers, which requires understanding the labor policy of the country where the project is located and reasonably mastering the proportion of Chinese and foreign personnel. Generally speaking, labor prices in developed countries such as Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany and France are high, while labor prices in most developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are low. Therefore, in the case of understanding competitors, the quotation should be different. In addition to economic factors, political factors should also be considered for foreign contracted projects, such as whether the country where the project is located has anti-dumping policies, and whether the owner has regulations or tips to encourage contractors to hire local labor. For policies and trends in these areas, if necessary, you can seek assistance from the economic reference Office of the Chinese Embassy in the local area.

In particular, it should be noted that the domestic model must not be mechanically applied to the cost of international projects. When a domestic enterprise bids for a stadium project in Togo, it is because it mechanically applies the domestic quotation experience to overseas projects. As a result, the final total price exceeds 35% of the bid winning price of the project.

As the contractor of international projects, Chinese enterprises must also balance the project profit, project quality and construction period objectives, which involves how to determine the proportion of Chinese personnel and local personnel. In general developing countries (such as Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, etc.), the use of local workers as much as possible can effectively reduce the construction cost, but in terms of quality and work efficiency, a certain number of Chinese workers must be used to demonstrate and lead. Therefore, we must proceed from reality and reasonably consider the employment proportion of Chinese and foreign personnel.

For international contracted projects, the bidding or contracting enterprises shall have their own internal quota, and can relatively accurately understand the situation of local workers, such as professional classification, proficiency, supply and demand, etc. For example, the project of a five-star hotel in Madagascar, which is tendered and contracted by a company, is a supporting project of a large international conference center, and the country stipulates that a certain proportion of local workers should be employed in the project. Based on years of construction experience in the Malaysian construction market and the characteristics of the project, the company generally considers the work efficiency ratio of Chinese workers to local workers as 1.5:1, including 1:10 for structural works, 1:5 for decoration and installation works and 1:20 for outdoor roads and auxiliary works. Reasonable employment ratio effectively controls the cost and meets the requirements of construction period.

To sum up, international project bidding is a complex work, which requires an in-depth understanding of the laws and customs of the local country, including the leasing of mechanical equipment, customs clearance procedures, taxes, etc., and pay attention to the format of bidding documents (notarization of relevant data or materials if necessary). An excellent international engineering estimator should be a miscellaneous talent who can penetrate and integrate a variety of professional knowledge such as system theory, cybernetics, information theory, catastrophe theory and synergy theory. For the quotation personnel engaged in international projects, they need to be constantly familiar with the international bidding rules, accumulate experience in practice, and explore a set of bidding mode suitable for the enterprise, so as to lay a foundation for the enterprise to further develop the international engineering market.

Source: overseas engineering circle.