Latest Law on Bidding in 2025 and guiding documents in Vietnam

Which is the latest Law on Bidding in 2025 in Vietnam?

The latest Law on Bidding in 2025 is the Law on Bidding 2023 (effective from January 1, 2024), amended by the Law amending the Law on Planning, Law on Investment, Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment, and Law on Bidding 2024 (effective from January 15, 2025).

Below is a compilation of documents guiding the Law on Bidding:

- Decree 115/2024/ND-CP guides the Law on Bidding 2023 on selecting investors for projects with land use.

- Decree 23/2024/ND-CP provides detailed regulations on certain articles and implementation measures of the Law on Bidding 2023 on investor selection for projects requiring bidding under legal sector management.

- Decree 24/2024/ND-CP details certain articles and measures for implementing the Law on Bidding 2023 on selecting contractors.

- Circular 22/2024/TT-BKHDT guides information provision and publication on contractor selection and bids on the national e-procurement system (effective from January 1, 2025, except for some regulations effective from December 1, 2024).

- Circular 01/2024/TT-BKHDT provides guidance on information provision, publication on contractor selection, and bid documents (expired from April 26, 2024, replaced by Circular 06/2024/TT-BKHDT).

- Circular 06/2024/TT-BKHDT provides guidelines on information provision, publication on contractor selection, and bidding documents on the national e-procurement system (expired from January 1, 2025, replaced by Circular 22/2024/TT-BKHDT).

- Circular 02/2024/TT-BKHDT regulates training, knowledge reinforcement, and issuance and withdrawal of professional certificates in procurement.

- Circular 03/2024/TT-BKHDT regulates bidding documents for selecting investors for projects requiring bidding under sector management (expired from September 30, 2024, replaced by Circular 15/2024/TT-BKHDT).

- Circular 05/2024/TT-BKHDT regulates the management and use of costs in contractor and investor selection on the national e-procurement system.

- Circular 07/2024/TT-BKHDT provides detailed bidding documents, evaluation reports, appraisal reports, monitoring, and reporting on bidding activities.

- Circular 05/2024/TT-BYT regulates the list of drugs, medical equipment, and test materials using price negotiation and the procedures for contractor selection for negotiated bid packages.

- Circular 15/2024/TT-BKHDT regulates bidding documents for selecting investors to carry out PPP investment projects, business investment projects; providing and publishing investment information via the national e-procurement system.

- Circular 69/2024/TT-BTC specifies the list of goods and services for centralized procurement at the national level (effective from November 15, 2024).

- Decision 1667/QD-BYT in 2024 on applying special contractor selection according to point d, clause 1, Article 29 of the Law on Bidding 2023.

What are prohibited acts in bidding activities in Vietnam?

1. Giving, receiving, or brokering bribes.

2. Abusing position or power to unlawfully influence or interfere in bidding activities in any form.

3. Anti-competitive bidding behaviors include:

   - Arranging, agreeing, or coercing to prepare tender dossiers or withdraw tender dossiers so one party wins the bid;

   - Arranging, agreeing to refuse to provide goods or services, not signing subcontract agreements, or engaging in agreements to limit competition so one party wins the bid;

   - A capable and experienced contractor or investor participates and meets the tender requirements, but intentionally does not provide documents to prove capability and experience when requested by the inviting party or during document verification to allow one party to win the bid.

4. Fraud includes behaviors such as:

   - Forging or falsifying information, dossiers, or documents in bidding;

   - Intentionally providing untruthful or biased information or documents in expressions of interest, prequalification dossiers, investment project registration dossiers, bids, or proposals to distort contractor or investor selection results.

5. Obstructive behaviors include:

   - Destroying, misleading, altering, concealing evidence, or reporting falsely; threatening or making suggestions to any party to prevent clarification of bribery, fraud, or collusion with supervisory authorities;

   - Hindering authorities, project owners, inviting parties, contractors, or investors from selecting contractors or investors;

   - Hindering authorities from supervising, inspecting, auditing bidding activities;

   - Intentionally making false complaints, accusations, or petitions to obstruct bidding activities;

   - Violating laws on cyber safety or security to interfere or obstruct online bidding.

6. Failing to ensure fairness and transparency includes:

   - Participating in bids as a contractor or investor for bid packages or investment projects managed by themselves as the inviting party or project owner, or performing duties of the inviting party or project owner which do not conform to this Law;

   - Simultaneously participating in the preparation and appraisal of invitations for interest, prequalification invitations, tender invitations, or requests for proposals for the same bid package or investment project;

   - Simultaneously evaluating bid dossiers and proposals, while also appraising results of contractor or investor selection for the same bid package or investment project;

   - Individuals from the inviting party or project owner directly participating in contractor or investor selection processes, or participating in expert teams, appraisal teams, or acting in authority as the head of the project owner or inviting party, with familial relationships, under the Enterprise Law, to bidders competing for procurement packages or investment projects;

   - Contractors participating in bid packages for goods procurement, construction, or non-consulting services provided by themselves: establishing, verifying, appraising estimates, technical designs, design drawings, detailed engineering designs (FEEDs); establishing, appraising tender invitations, prequalification invitations, bidding evaluations; inspecting goods; appraising contractor selection results; supervising contract implementation;

   - Bidding for projects or investment projects with the project owner or inviting party as the agency or organization they previously worked at, holding a leadership or management position within 12 months after leaving said agency;

   - Supervising consulting contractors also providing inspection consulting for packages they supervise;

   - Applying non-open competitive bidding for contractor or investor selection without meeting the conditions under this Law;

   - Requiring specific brand names or product origins in tender invitations for goods procurement, construction, or hybrid packages when applying open competitive bidding, restricted bidding, or competitive offering, except as stated in point e, clause 3 of Article 10, clause 2 of Article 44, and clause 1 of Article 56;

   - Setting conditions in tender invitations to limit contractor or investor participation or to give advantages to certain contractors or investors, causing unfair competition in violation of clause 3, Article 44, and clause 2, Article 48;

   - Splitting projects or procurement estimates into bid packages to appoint contractors; dividing projects or procurement estimates to limit contractor participation.

7. Disclosing files or information about contractor or investor selection, except for providing information as per point b of clause 8 and point g of clause 9, Article 77, clause 11, Article 78, point h of clause 1, Article 79, clause 4, Article 80, clause 4, Article 81, clause 2, Article 82, and point b of clause 4, Article 93, including:

   - Content of invitations for interest, prequalification, tender documents, requests prior to distribution as per regulation;

   - Content of interest dossiers, prequalification dossiers, investment proposals, bids, proposals; requirements to clarify interest dossiers, prequalification dossiers, investment proposals, bids, proposals from the inviting party and responses from contractors or investors while evaluating these documents; reports from the inviting party, expert teams, consultants, specialized agencies involved in contractor or investor selection; meeting minutes, evaluation comments on each dossier of interest, prequalification, investment proposal, bid, proposal before being made public as per regulation;

   - Results of contractor or investor selection before public disclosure as per regulation;

   - Other documents during contractor or investor selection determined to contain state secrets under the law.

8. Bidding transfer in the following cases:

   - Contractors transferring parts of the package work beyond the maximum value for subcontractors and special subcontractor tasks stated in the contract;

   - Contractors transferring parts of the package work within the maximum value for subcontractor work as stated in the contract but outside the scope of work proposed for subcontractors in the bid dossier or proposal without approval from the project owner or supervisor;

   - Project owners or supervising consultants approving contractor work transfer as per point a of this clause;

   - Project owners or supervising consultants approving work transfers per point b of this clause exceeding the maximum value for subcontractor work stated in the contract.

9. Organizing contractor selection without determining funding sources per clause 3, Article 39, except for pre-determined bidding per Article 42 of this Law.

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