On March 18, 2004, which was the deadline date for solicitation of bid submission to the project of “GEF/UNDP Demonstration for FCB Commercialization in China,” a bid opening meeting was held. Four manufacturers participated with bids to the solicitation No.: ICEB-B01G3101. They are: Dongfeng Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd; Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group); DaimlerChrysler; and Beijing Tsinghua Coway International Technology Transfer Co., Ltd.

　　Twenty people attended the meeting, including officers and representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges(CICETE), Beijing Public Transport Corporation, Shanghai Electric Bus Corporation, National Project Management Office and the four manufactures which participated in the bid,

　　The meeting was hosted by Lei Yu , the Deputy Division Director from CICETE. Mr. Chen Jiachang, the Director of MoST, gave a short speech on behalf of the Project Management Office.

　　Before opening the bids, the seals of the bid documents were verified to be complete and intact. Then the working staff opened the bid documents in public and read out the names of the bidders, bid prices and other main contents of the bid documents. After that, the representatives of the bidder gave some explanations. At last, CICETE declared all bids are legitimate and valid.

　　On March 22, an evaluation committee was formed by technical and commercial experts to assess the bids.