China, People's Republic of : Supporting Project Preparation

Finance / Finance sector development - Infrastructure finance and investment funds

Health / Health system development

Transport / Multimodal logistics - Rail transport (non-urban) - Transport policies and institutional development - Urban public transport

Water and other urban infrastructure and services / Other urban services - Urban flood protection - Urban housing - Urban water supply

Project preparation activities for PRC projects support the review of the FSR prepared by the design institutes and the preparation of standard ADB documents, including due diligence and other requirements, such as financial, economic, and safeguards, and poverty, social, and gender analyses. The review found out that 52% of the PPTA resources were used to revise and strengthen projects' detailed engineering designs prepared by the design institutes, while in 48% of the cases PPTAs were used to undertake standard ADB due diligence and other requirements. This confirms that, for a subgroup of ADB-funded projects, the FSR prepared by the design institutes is of good quality, and therefore the preparatory work could only cover standard due diligence assessments, without the need to duplicate design work. In the latter cases, efficiency gains could come from engaging consultants to undertake standard due diligence assessments for multiple projects.

To address the above issues and in line with the new TA programmatic approach, the F-TrTA will provide project preparation support, from planning and sector work to due diligence assessments and start-up activities, for four projects pipelined for 2018 and 2019 (the subprojects). As projects are likely to require similar set of safeguard, financial management, and economic and sector assessments, the facility approach is suitable to (i) enhance operational efficiency in preparing the projects, (ii) reap important synergies from working with the same consultants, (iii) and reduce recruitment time of consultants by allowing consultants to be retained on a long-term basis; and (iv) strengthen coordination between ADB's preparatory activities and design institutes' work. The F-TrTA will result in PRC's efficient strategic implementation of a longer-term consolidated TA for supporting project preparation, aiming at faster delivery of project preparation, quicker and more flexible responsiveness to support lending operations, and higher readiness of approved projects.

The TRTA was approved on 5 December 2017 amounting to $1.30 million financed by ADB's Technical Assistance Special Fund (TASF-other sources). Following the original approval, several rounds of TA replenishments were made, including (i) $2.050 million financed by ADB's TASF-other sources on 28 June 2018; (ii) $0.500 million financed by Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund (EAKPF) on 6 August 2018; (iii) $0.338 million from ADB's TASF-other sources on 26 December 2018; (iv) $0.312 million from ADB's TASF-other sources, $0.500 million from Sanitation Financing Partnership Trust Fund, $0.500 million from Clean Energy Fund, $0.300 million from Urban Environmental Infrastructure Fund, and another $0.500 million from EAKPF on 8 May 2019; and (v) $0.200 million from TASF-other sources on 27 March 2020. Such replenishments bring the total TA amount to $6.50 million, including $4.20 million from TASF-other sources and $2.30 million of ADB-administered funds. ADB through its People's Republic of China Resident Mission (PRCM) is the executing agency and the TA supervising unit, with the East Asia Regional Department's sector divisions as implementing agencies. The current TA completion is extended to 5 December 2022 and with expectation to extend.

Eleven subprojects are included under the TA Facility namely: (i) Green Finance Catalyzing Facility, (ii) Xiangyang Care Service Development (public private partnership [PPP]), (iii) Jilin Yanji Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient Urban Development, (iv) Multimodal Passenger Hubs Development, (v) Guangxi Elderly Care Demonstration (PPP), (vi) Hunan Xiangtan Low Carbon City Development, (vii) Jiangxi Shangrao Preschool Education Demonstration Project, (viii) Shenzhen Water Project (PPP), (ix) Guizhou Gui'an New Urban Area Smart Transport, (x) Shanxi Changzhi Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient Circular Economy Transformation Project, and (xi) PPP/NSO Project Development. The implementation of the TA facility is proceeding in accordance with the processing schedule of the ensuing loans. As of 26 September 2022, $6,120,832 (94.17%) has been committed and $4,842,943 (74.51%) disbursed.

Each subproject will require a team of international and national consultants to be engaged by ADB. Consulting firms and individual consultants will be recruited based on the requirements of each TA subproject, in accordance with ADB Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) and the associated PAIs/TA Staff Instructions. The fields, duration of engagement and related costs of the expertise in Appendix 3 of the TA report are indicative and estimates will be finalized prior to approval of each subproject in consultation with the government teams. Consulting firms will be engaged following either the quality- and cost-based selection method, with a quality-cost ratio of 90:10 using full, simplified, or bio-data technical proposal procedures; or consultant's qualification selection, as appropriate.

Consultants to be selected using the individual consultants' selection method will be engaged to provide specialized technical inputs to fulfill ADB advanced planning and sector work, due diligence requirements, and enhance project readiness. Contract options may include time-based or framework agreements. Lump-sum or output-based contracts will be considered for consulting services under the TA facility. When the preparation of loans to be supported by the proposed TA facility require the same set of expertise, important synergies may be reaped from engaging the same consultants. New contract modalities such as framework agreements, will allow consultants to be retained for repeat assignments during a given period.