New bidding rules for State projects

Laws - The Government has passed new regulations that prioritise Vietnamese contractor and materials in State-funded projects.

Directive 494/CT-TTg states that global tenders for goods and equipment can only be accepted if local bids do not meet required standards or when official development assistance (ODA) stipulates that outside contractors must be considered.

State-financed projects, plans and programmes must be properly designed so that domestic contractors can undertake them, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said.

For the procurement of goods for ODA projects, international contractors are invited to join in the bidding when domestically made goods, materials and equipment are unavailable or Vietnamese enterprises fail to meet necessary standards, he said.

In addition, all transactions relating to the bidding process must be in Vietnamese dong unless goods and services are imported. The use of foreign labour is forbidden when suitably qualified Vietnamese workers are available, says the directive.

The directive also bans the organisation of international bidding for engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contracts if domestic bidder are capable of doing parts of the packages.