Regulations on organizing international biddings under the 2023 Bidding Law (effective from January 1, 2024)

The Bidding Law 2023 has officially taken effect since January 1, 2024. Through this article, Gia Luat would like to send Valued Clients some regulations related to the conditions for organizing international bidding according to the provisions of the current Bidding Law.

According to the law, international bidding means the bidding process with the participation of both domestic and foreign bidders or investors.

The requirements for organizing international bidding are as follows:

1. International bidding may be organized if one of the following conditions is satisfied:

a) The international bidding is requested by the donor that finances the project or package under an international convention or loan agreement;

b) Bidding packages for providing consulting services, non-consulting services, construction and installation, and mixed services in which domestic contractors are not capable of meeting the requirements for implementing the bidding package or bidding packages that have been pre-qualified, invited for interest, or publicly bid domestically before but have no participating contractors;

c) In case of a consulting service package in which the competent person believes that the participation of foreign bidders is necessary for improving the quality of the package or project, the competent person decides to organize international bidding and assumes responsibility for his/her decision;

d) In case of a procurement package, the good to be procured cannot be domestically manufactured or none of domestic manufacturers of such a good satisfies all technical, quality and price requirements. If the good to be procured is a common good which has been imported and sold in Vietnam, the organization of international bidding is not allowed.

2. International bidding shall be organized for selecting qualified investors for the investment projects:

2.1 Investment projects involving land use which require bidding as prescribed by the Law on land;

2.2 Investment projects which require bidding as prescribed by specialized laws;

Except the following cases:

a) Projects involving business lines from which foreign investors are prohibited as prescribed by the Law on investment;

b) Projects for which the domestic bidding is compulsory for the purposes of national defense and security, social order and security;

c) Projects located in land areas or sea areas the use of which is restricted to foreign investors and foreign-invested business organizations as prescribed by the Law on land and relevant laws;

d) Projects with a total investment of less than VND 800 billion;

dd) The project does not fall under the cases specified in points a, b, c and d of this clause and has been announced and notified to invite interest in organizing international bidding but no foreign investors participate.