Five-star hotels and other luxury facilities have been excluded in Beijing’s sanctioned government procurement list of 318 conference venues in the city.
Belt tightening for state conferences
The latest administrative measure regarding the designation of party meetings and conferences, published by Beijing Finance Bureau, has a stronger focus on austerity than previous lists. It also gives venue providers the right to turn down government agencies’requested services that are beyond agreed terms.
Venue providers in breach of the new measure will receive a warning for first-time offences and will face having their eligibility as an approved venue revoked for second-time offences. Serious offenders will even be excluded from future officially sanctioned lists of government conference venues.
Five-star hotels and luxury resorts off limits
The government conference venue list is decided by the Beijing Municipality according to guidelines of the State Government’s “eight-clause policy” and the requirements of the municipality.
Among the venues listed, 39 are equipped to host large-scale conferences and 260 can host small- and medium-sized events. Another 19 “budget venues” have only conference facilities but no accommodation or dining services. Five-star hotels and luxury venues no longer fall within the procurement scope for government event venues.
The Chinese Communist party has already set the standard daily allowance at RMB550 per official for attendees of the first- and the second-type conferences, of which RMB300 is for accommodation, RMB150 for food and RMB100 for miscellaneous expenses. Attendees of the third-type events have a per diem of RMB450, with RMB240 for accommodation, RMB130 for food and RMB80 for miscellaneous expenses. Miscellaneous expenses include document printing costs and venue and equipment rental fees. (Translation by David)
