SHENGZHEN, Guangdong - Eight years after this South China metropolis set up an online procurement system, official statistics suggest the city government has become more transparent and efficient.

Since the policy was introduced, the city has saved more than 3.8 billion yuan ($598 million), according to the Shenzhen procurement center's work report to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

As one of seven pilot cities in the country's procurement innovation project, led by the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, the city has made all purchases using its online system, said Ye Jianming, director of the procurement center.

The system handles bid invitations, and bidding and evaluation processes operated separately by the center, project leaders, bidders and experts, he said.

"The system has saved a lot of paper and time, as bidders can directly download application forms and submit them - they no longer need to visit our office several times with bunches of documents," Ye said. "And since what they download are standard forms, it has also saved us a lot of energy and cost."

Lin Miao, a standing committee member of the city's Party discipline inspection committee, one of the center's supervising departments, said the system is an achievement.

"It contributes greatly to transparency and preventing corruption," he said.

Ye added: "We have a special line so that supervisors can directly collect data from the system and supervise operations in real time."

Zhao Qifeng, bidding evaluation administrator, said he recently evaluated the purchase of arthroscopic equipment for Peking University's Shenzhen Hospital.