Officials still splashing out on foreign vehicles
By Wang Qingchu |
November 18, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GOVERNMENT officials' preference for luxury cars from abroad seems to have been unaffected by a State Council notice urging them to buy more domestic brands.
Spending on vehicles rose to 80 billion yuan (US$12.6 billion) last year, 10 billion yuan more than the year before, with luxury vehicles from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi featuring prominently.
The expenditure on vehicles took up 14 percent of total government purchasing.
The China Youth Daily said yesterday that it was a "scandal" that government departments should be spending so much on premier cars.
A vehicle supplier list published by the Central Government Procurement Center in 2009 names 38 authorized manufacturers, including 21 domestic manufacturers and luxury foreign brands, but the State Council urged departments to buy more domestic cars to promote China's auto industry.
But Chinese makers struck very few deals with government departments, the newspaper said.
Chery Automobile Co Ltd, the largest private manufacturer in China, sold some 3,400 cars to government departments that year, a rise of just 0.4 percent from 2008 and only 2.3 percent of the total, the report said.
In February this year, the finance department of northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region hit the headlines when it was revealed it had spent 9 million yuan on 25 Audi cars in one transaction. And of a total of 71 cars the department purchased that month, only one was a domestic brand.
China requires government departments to disclose how much is spent on officials' trips, vehicle purchases and receptions to combat misuse of taxpayers money.
Spending on vehicles rose to 80 billion yuan (US$12.6 billion) last year, 10 billion yuan more than the year before, with luxury vehicles from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi featuring prominently.
The expenditure on vehicles took up 14 percent of total government purchasing.
The China Youth Daily said yesterday that it was a "scandal" that government departments should be spending so much on premier cars.
A vehicle supplier list published by the Central Government Procurement Center in 2009 names 38 authorized manufacturers, including 21 domestic manufacturers and luxury foreign brands, but the State Council urged departments to buy more domestic cars to promote China's auto industry.
But Chinese makers struck very few deals with government departments, the newspaper said.
Chery Automobile Co Ltd, the largest private manufacturer in China, sold some 3,400 cars to government departments that year, a rise of just 0.4 percent from 2008 and only 2.3 percent of the total, the report said.
In February this year, the finance department of northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region hit the headlines when it was revealed it had spent 9 million yuan on 25 Audi cars in one transaction. And of a total of 71 cars the department purchased that month, only one was a domestic brand.
China requires government departments to disclose how much is spent on officials' trips, vehicle purchases and receptions to combat misuse of taxpayers money.
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