On September 30, 2022, the Minister of Planning and Investment issued Circular No. 21/2022/TT-BKHDT, which outlined the procedures for preparing the bid documents for non-consultancy services for contract packages covered by the CPTPP, EVFTA, and UKVFTA Agreements.

The Circular states that the following conditions must be followed in order to prepare, process, and approve bid documents for the contract package of non-consultancy services covered by the CPTPP, EVFTA, and UKVFTA Agreements:

  • Procuring organizations should develop appropriate conditions based on the scope and type of each contract package and the rules of competition, fairness, transparency, and economic efficiency;
  • Procuring organizations must avoid imposing limits on bidder participation or favoring one or a small number of bidders in order to avoid unfair competition;

Avoid creating conditions for exclusion that require bidders to have expertise supplying goods or services inside the area of a certain nation or territory or that they must have one or more prior contracts with purchasing entities of that country or territory.

If the template for the bid documents is changed in any manner, the organizations responsible for creating, processing, and approving the bid documents must make sure that the change improves the bid documents' organization and conformity while remaining compliant with the CPTPP, EVFTA, and UKVFTA Agreements.

The investor must be informed of any changes made to the bidding documents from the original template in the request for approval of the documents, together with the explanations for such changes.

Circular No. 21/2022/TT-BKHDT supersedes Circular No. 11/2015/TT-BKHDT and goes into effect on November 20, 2022.

Originally published OCTOBER 24, 2022.

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