In order to achieve the expected goal in the competition of foreign projects, the author thinks that the following aspects should be paid attention to when bidding for international projects:
1. Make a decisive decision before bidding. After the company's decision-makers obtain foreign engineering information from intermediary agencies, agency companies or cooperative companies of joint ventures, they should first make quick decisions based on key factors such as engineering characteristics, national conditions of the project country, short-term and long-term goals, and conduct feasibility analysis when necessary. For example, after our company learned about the Uganda 150km 33KV transmission project in East Africa, some people thought that it was only a medium-voltage short-distance line, which obviously had no value and significance in a remote and poor country like Uganda. However, the decision-making level of the company decided to bid from the strategic perspective of the East African market. Because we can't just focus on the line in front of us, the next step is more important to squeeze into the African electricity market and strive for more and bigger projects. Bidding decision also involves the analysis and judgment of the company's own factors, such as mechanical labor, technical strength, foreign language level and so on. Only in this way can we foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and create a good reputation for the company while creating profits.
2. After careful investigation, analysis and decision-making by the owner, on the one hand, organize personnel to carefully prepare the tender, and at the same time, use various channels to understand the relevant situation of the owner. Such as the source of funds for the project, whether it is self-financing or loan; The reputation of the owner at home and abroad; Other projects owned by the owner; Equipment used in the owner's existing projects, etc. This information is very useful for price positioning, scheme determination and equipment selection in bidding. In the process of equipment selection for power station projects in Palau and China, we originally considered using domestic equipment, but after investigating the existing power stations in Palau, we found that the owners pay special attention to brand names and durability, such as transformers, which they like to make in Germany, while diesel generators use Perkins and Caterpillar in the United States. After understanding the above information, we made some necessary adjustments to the equipment selection and construction scheme. During the inspection, it was also found that Palauans paid special attention to environmental protection and paid great attention to protecting the ecological and tourism resources on which they depended. In view of this, we specially added the chapter of environmental protection in the construction organization design. Psychoanalysis of the master is equally important. Conventionally, owners who are short of funds will generally consider winning the bid with the lowest bid price, while owners with abundant funds will require equipment suppliers to have well-known brands and advanced technology; For the owners who are in urgent need of electricity, the quotation can be slightly raised, but the construction period must be guaranteed, as soon as possible if conditions permit.
3. Careful study of the owner's bidding documents is the main basis, even the only basis in some cases. Therefore, we must thoroughly study the owner's bidding documents and find out the following relationship elements:
(1) Define the scope of work accurately: the workload is inaccurate, and the accuracy of the quotation is out of the question.
(2) Time limit requirements: The time limit required in the owner's tender must meet five conditions, and the overall network progress chart shall be compiled according to the total time limit to satisfy the owner as much as possible.
(3) Currency, exchange rate and payment terms of the country where the project is located. In particular, it is necessary to make clear the proportion of installment payment and the restrictive measures. Owners often decide the proportion of installment payment according to the workload completed by contractors, and stipulate some specific measures for delaying fines.
(4) Charges for customs, taxes and labor licenses in the country where the project is located;
(5) In case of dispute, laws and regulations applicable to arbitration and judgment.
4. Strive for flexible quotation methods. The preparation of tender is a systematic and complicated work, involving many majors and jobs such as technology, economy, foreign languages, finance, materials, quality and safety. All disciplines should be coordinated and inclusive. Before compiling, if conditions permit, appropriate professionals should be sent to the site for on-the-spot investigation to fully understand the natural conditions, construction environment, price level and competitors where the project is located, so that a scientific and reasonable tender can be compiled. All aspects of the bidding practice tells us that the following methods can be used when quoting:
(1) unbalanced quotation method. Unbalanced quotation refers to the reasonable adjustment of the prices of business items in the tender according to the payment terms of the tender after the total project price is finally determined; On the premise of not raising the total price and not affecting the bidding, we should recover the funds and project funds as soon as possible, reduce the investment experience and finally achieve better economic benefits. One of the payment conditions stipulated by our company in the bidding documents of Uganda power transmission and transformation line project is that the owner will pay 80% of the money within 45 days after receiving all invoices and shipping materials. In this way, with the advance payment of 10%, the owner can pay us 90% of the total project cost. The project payment shall be paid in installments according to the construction progress and the completed workload. Therefore, after the total bid price is determined, we will moderately increase the equipment purchase price, and correspondingly reduce the construction costs such as machinery and manpower, thus reducing the risk of overseas investment and construction of enterprises to a certain extent. In addition, there are several items that also need unbalanced quotation. For example, the unit price can be increased appropriately for subprojects with less drawings and expected increase in engineering quantity; If the content of the project is unclear, the unit price can be reduced appropriately. If the project owner requires the bid price to be confirmed once without adjustment, the bid price should be moderately increased because the risk is unpredictable. In a word, unbalanced quotation is a reasonable price allocation based on the analysis of specific terms in the owner's tender. But when using it, we must master the scale, so as not to cause the owner's disgust and lead to the waste of standards.
(2) Alternative quotation method. When there is an optional scheme or no clear scheme in the original tender, we can make different schemes and quotations according to local conditions. In the bidding of Palau power station project, the owner requires bidders to choose their own line erection scheme according to the different ecological environment of five States, which can be overhead or underground. It is also stipulated in the Uganda route bidding. If bidders have other options, they can quote separately. In this way, we can make another plan besides the original plan, and the total price can be lower than the original plan quotation to a certain extent, so as to attract owners and strive for favorable bid evaluation factors.
(3) Sudden price reduction method. In the competitive commercial war era, quotation is a very confidential work. Competitors often spy on each other and inquire about each other's price. So at the beginning of establishment and pricing, we can set it higher. When the tender is delivered before the deadline, the total price can be suddenly reduced by a few percentage points, which will make competitors unprepared and improve our favorable position in bid evaluation.
(4) look at capital preservation in the long run. After the economic recovery in Southeast Asia, the infrastructure market has great potential. For example, Cambodia is in great need of post-war reconstruction. In this case, as long as it can enter the market of this country, it is expected that there will be a steady stream of engineering projects. Therefore, when preparing the tender for Thai Wenlong Cement Plant and its own power plant in Cambodia, we reduced the total price from 65,438+0 to 60,000,000,000 to 70,000,000,000, which is simply the lowest price. However, the purpose of ultra-low quotation is to squeeze competitors, enter the country's market, and then enter the Southeast Asian market, so as to establish a long-term cooperative relationship and gradually make up for the loss of winning the first bid from future cooperation.
5. Continuously improve the comprehensive quality of bidders' overseas bidding work. In addition to having some basic qualities of domestic bidding, such as technology, accounting, computer and other businesses, it is necessary to continue to learn in the following aspects to improve the comprehensive business level, so that bidders can become new compound talents as soon as possible:
(1) Master basic foreign language skills. English is an international language and the dominant language of most contracts at present. If you don't know English, you can't get a lot of comprehensive business and technical information, and it is difficult to complete the bidding preparation of foreign engineering projects with high quality.
(2) Master the necessary foreign trade knowledge. Foreign project bidding involves a lot of foreign trade knowledge, such as bank guarantee, insurance, customs duties, ocean transportation, CIF and FOB, and other price terms stipulated in lncoterms90. Mastering this knowledge is directly related to the accuracy of business standard preparation.
(3) Understand the labor policies of competitors and countries where the project is located. Generally speaking, labor prices in developed countries such as Britain, America, Japan, Germany and France are relatively high, while labor prices in most developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are relatively low. Therefore, in the case of understanding competitors, the quotation should be different. In addition to economic factors, political factors should also be taken into account when contracting projects abroad, such as whether there is an anti-dumping policy in the country where the project is located, and whether the owner has any regulations or tips to encourage contractors to hire local labor. For the policies and trends in these areas, you can seek help from the Economic Counsellor's Office of our local embassy when necessary.
(4) Understand the basic foreign affairs reception and common sense of etiquette. In foreign bidding, it is inevitable to deal with foreign businessmen. In addition to professional business such as tender preparation and contract negotiation, you must also master basic knowledge such as foreign reception and foreign affairs etiquette. For foreign guests and businessmen with different nationalities, religious beliefs and personality characteristics, we should study different psychology and adopt different methods to promote a harmonious negotiation atmosphere and enhance mutual understanding, so as to have more business opportunities in the market economy. In a word, foreign-related project bidding is a very complicated system engineering, involving many related issues, and the road to success will never be smooth sailing. The above is only the author's opinion, hoping to attract the attention of peers. * * * Do something practical for enterprises to explore and occupy the international market.
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