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In the case of "Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure Projects of Taiwan" (PPP case), the negotiation of contract takes place "after the authority in charge has selected the best applicant" and "before the concession agreement is signed". Prior to signing the concession agreement, the authority in charge and the best applicant have to specifically review and negotiate the draft concession agreement contained in the tender documents based on the evaluation results, and if necessary, the draft concession agreement will be further revised. This is the negotiation of contract system in the PPP case. In the practice of PPP case, it often happens that the authority in charge and the best applicant fail to agree on the terms and conditions of the draft concession agreement during the contract negotiation process. As a result, the outcome of the contract negotiation is difficult to produce and the PPP case is broken. In this regard, the best applicant is at risk of having the authority in charge recover or confiscate the earnest money he has applied for. In addition, in recent years, there have been cases where the authority in charge has decided not to proceed with the PPP case prior to the signing of the concession agreement due to the change of government policy. This has led to a controversy as to whether the authority in charge should compensate the best applicant for the damage (or loss) suffered. Therefore, this thesis examines the above-mentioned problems arising from the negotiation of contract in Taiwan’s PPP act and how to solve them. Taiwan’s PPP act adopts the spirit of public-private partnership and the two-stage framework, consequently, this thesis is based on those legislation frames to examine the legal relationship between the authority in charge and the best applicant, as well as the rights and obligations of them, and the imputability of both parties in the event that the negotiation of contract does not achieve any result. In addition, this thesis examines the remedies available to the best applicant in the event that the authority in charge dose not proceed with the PPP case or forfeits the earnest money applied for by the best applicant. Finally, in February 2022, the Executive Yuan proposed draft amendments to some provisions of the "Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects". Therefore, this thesis also analyses the provisions of the draft amendment related to the negotiation of contract and proposes amendments to resolve the dispute over contract negotiation in order to improve the provisions of PPP act in Taiwan. |