Three Chinese industry groups have undertaken an effort to educate Chinese government departments about laws that prohibit procurement tenders from requiring a specific product brand, an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) spokeswoman said Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday, AMD expressed support for the education effort led by the China Computer Users Association (CCUA), the China Computer Federation (CCF), and the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), saying that a brand-neutral procurement policy means cost savings for the Chinese government.
“The initiative is mainly about the central government,” said Rose Wang, a spokeswoman for AMD China.
China already has laws on the books that require government tenders to be brand-neutral: the Government Procurement Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Tendering and Bidding Law of the PRC. “There are laws in place, but that doesn’t mean it’s being fully implemented in reality,” Wang said.
In recent years, AMD has pushed back against government tenders in several countries where tenders specify a requirement for PCs based on Intel Corp. processors. By requiring an Intel chip, these tenders rule out procurement of computers based on AMD chips, even though they are capable of running the same applications.
These tenders don’t necessarily mean that a government is against using AMD processors or is biased against the company, Wang said. “It is more a kind of habit when they work up the specs for the tender,” she said.
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