Evolution of cost estimating system in China: Intelligent estimator for Shandong Province (IES) to general intelligent estimator (GIE)

IES was the first knowledge-based cost estimating system with distinctive Chinese features and has been developed over the past four years, increasing the speed of estimating twelvefold in Shandong Province. GIE, the system. for the whole of China is being tested in Jiangsu Province and the authors anticipate that other provinces will adopt the method, thus raising estimating standards in China as a whole.