Bureau Veritas China at UN Expert Workshop on Sourcing Guidelines, May 21-24, 2007

Invited by United Nations, Bureau Veritas attended an expert workshop that took place in Shanghai from May 21 to 24, on the development of UN’s China Sourcing Guidelines. Toby Li, Yong Cai and David Chen from I&F China participated in the four-day discussion and made a speech on “Achieve successful sourcing projects in China: Challenges and Supplier Assessment”. There were 16 companies in total invited for this workshop, ranging from sourcing service providers, professional consulting firms to well-known industrial enterprises and research institutions. Bureau Veritas was the only one from the field of inspection, certification and quality control.

As China Sourcing has become a hot strategic move for many multinational companies in recent years, UN is also being motivated to purchase from China. One UN agency, UNHCR established a Regional Supply Unit in Beijing in November 2004, and later on four UNHCR Procurement Information Centers in Yiwu, Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai. This initiative has provided considerable positive results for UNHCR with an increment of 373 % in procurement from China in 2005 and an increment from 40 % to 60 % of direct procurement from Chinese manufacturers.

It is considered that the UNHCR Procurement Information Centers could evolve into “Inter-agency Sourcing Service Centers” maximizing the use of these centers, promoting increments in UN direct procurement in China and expanding the UN international supplier base with considerable benefits in terms of procurement savings, maximizing the use of funds for UN global humanitarian operations.

Aiming to facilitate and promote direct sourcing and procurement from China, particularly for those UN agencies that do not have global sourcing or procurement offices in China, UNHCR and another UN agency, UNICEF, specially launched this workshop to listen to expert opinions and experience for developing a UN China Sourcing Guidelines which would be submitted to UN headquarter and circulated among UN agencies.

Bureau Veritas’ presentation, warmly welcomed by the audience, was one of the best according to the organizer.

For more information about this workshop, please contact:
- Yong CAI, CBD department, Bureau Veritas I&F China
- E-mail: yong.cai@bureauveritas.com
- Phone: +86 (0) 21 6886 0643 ext. 811