New Points of the Amended Law on Bidding 2024

On November 29, 2024, the National Assembly passed Law No. 57/2024/QH15 amending the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment in the form of Public-Private Partnership, and the Law on Bidding 2024 (the Law amending 4 Laws), which will take effect from January 15, 2025. Article 4 of Law No. 57/2024/QH15 has amended several provisions of the Law on Bidding 2023. Below, Viet An Law will analyze the new points of the amended Law on Bidding 2024.

Amendments and supplements to regulations on preferential foreign loans

Previously, the Law on Bidding 2023 used the term “preferential loans from foreign donors.” According to the amended regulations, this term is replaced with “preferential foreign loans”.

Additionally, according to the amended Law on Bidding 2024, before signing international treaties or foreign loan agreements that have different bidding regulations or are not yet regulated by this Law, the negotiating agency must report to the Government for consideration and decision on the application according to the rules of the donor or the international organization of which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.

Thus, if previously “the Government submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for opinions”, the new regulation only requires “the negotiating agency to report to the Government for consideration and decision on the application”. This facilitates and avoids time-consuming and complicated procedures for foreign loan agreements.

Amendments and supplements to regulations ensuring competition in bidding

Clause 3, Article 4 of Law No. 57/2024/QH15 has amended and supplemented several contents on ensuring competition in bidding in Article 6 of the Law on Bidding 2023 as follows:

• Bidders submitting expressions of interest or prequalification documents must be legally and financially independent from “the investor, the procuring entity, except in cases where the bidder is a public non-business unit under a state management agency with functions and tasks assigned in accordance with the nature of the package of the state management agency and except in cases specified in Clause 4a of this Article.” The new regulation has removed the subject “member companies, subsidiaries of state-owned corporations, general companies with main production and business sectors” as legally and financially independent entities.
• Adding Clause 4a after Clause 4 as follows: “Parent companies, subsidiaries, member companies in state economic groups, state general companies are allowed to participate in each other’s packages if the products and services of the package belong to the main production and business sectors of the state economic group, state general company. For mixed packages where the state economic group or parent company, subsidiary, member company in the state economic group is the investor, the procuring entity, the participating bidder, and the consulting bidder for the overall technical design, feasibility study report (in case of not preparing the overall technical design), economic-technical report (in case of not preparing the feasibility study report, not preparing the overall technical design according to construction law) must not have shares or contributed capital of each other, must not jointly have shares or contributed capital over 30% of another organization or individual with each party.”
• Conditions for evaluating legal and financial independence when “the participating bidder and the consulting bidder for that package do not have shares or contributed capital of each other; do not jointly have shares or contributed capital over 20% of another organization or individual with each party, except in cases specified in Clause 4a of this Article.” This new regulation has excluded the case specified in the newly added Clause 4a.

Amendments and Supplements to Regulations on Cases of Direct Contracting

Direct contracting is a simple contractor selection procedure with a short implementation time, so many investors want to use this form to save time and minimize risks for the package or project and for the contractor itself. The amended Law on Bidding 2024 has amended and supplemented several cases of direct contracting in Article 23 of the Law on Bidding 2023 as follows:

• Packages in the healthcare sector: Adding cases of pesticides, crop seeds, disinfectants, and materials that need to be urgently deployed to serve disease prevention and control;
• Packages in the architecture and construction sector: Adding cases of consulting packages for exploration and archaeological excavation; consulting and construction packages for the restoration and preservation of national monuments, extraordinary national monuments, and world cultural heritage;
• Packages under procurement estimates: New regulations stipulate that the value of packages under procurement estimates must not exceed VND 300 million; packages under projects must not exceed VND 500 million for consulting service packages, VND 1 billion for non-consulting service packages, goods, construction, and mixed packages; packages for planning tasks must not exceed VND 500 million.

Thus, the new regulations have resolved some difficulties and obstacles in recent times, adjusted the simplified direct contracting limits in a manner suitable to the development situation, facilitated, and improved the efficiency in implementing bidding and procurement activities.

Addition of New Regulations on Selecting Investors in Special Cases

One of the notable new points of the amended Law on Bidding 2024 is that Clause 12, Article 4 of the amended Law on Bidding 2024 has added Article 34a after Article 34 on selecting investors in special cases.

Accordingly, the selection of investors in special cases applies to business investment projects with one or several specific requirements and conditions regarding investment procedures; procedures for land allocation, land lease, sea area allocation; procedures, methods, standards for selecting investors, and the content of business investment project contracts or requirements to ensure national defense, security, foreign affairs, territorial borders, national interests, and the implementation of national political tasks that cannot apply one of the forms of investor selection through open bidding or restricted bidding.

To guide this new regulation, the Government has issued Decree 17/2025/ND-CP, which guides several new regulations on selecting investors in special cases.

Amendments and supplements to regulations on pre-bidding in Vietnam

Pre-bidding involves carrying out certain procedures before international treaties or foreign loan agreements are signed for projects using ODA funds, preferential foreign loans, or before the project is approved for investment, to accelerate project implementation, except for packages that need to be carried out before project approval. Clause 14, Article 4 of the amended Law on Bidding 2024 has amended and supplemented regulations on pre-bidding in Article 42 as follows:

• Expanding the scope of application to include packages for compensation, site clearance, relocation of infrastructure and technical works, bomb and mine clearance, planning, resettlement, or pre-bidding requirements from foreign donors.
• Clearly defining the list of packages that can be pre-bid: Packages for procurement of goods with clear scope; packages for providing consulting and non-consulting services; packages under ODA projects/preferential foreign loans with specific requirements from donors.
• Detailing pre-bidding procedures: Adding detailed procedural steps. Contract signing is only carried out after the project is approved, except for packages under ODA/preferential loans if required by the donor.
• Eliminating bid security measures: Bidders are not required to provide bid security but must commit to participation responsibilities.
• Adding commitment to responsibilities: The bidding documents must clearly define the responsibilities of the bidder and the investor in pre-bidding.
• Handling cases of non-approval: If the project is not approved or the loan agreement is not signed, the investor cancels the bidding without reimbursing the costs to the bidder.
• Clearly defining the formation of packages combining multiple tasks: Tasks such as surveying, preparing feasibility study reports, technical design, etc., can be combined into one package for bidding.

Amendments and Supplements to Regulations on Time for Organizing Contractor Selection

Clause 14, Article 4 of the amended Law on Bidding 2024 has amended and supplemented regulations on the time for organizing contractor selection as follows:

• Adding preparation time for bidding documents for simple consulting packages or consulting packages with a value not exceeding VND 500 million or urgent consulting packages that need to be carried out immediately due to progress requirements, the minimum preparation time for bidding documents is 7 days for domestic bidding.
• Adding regulations on amending bidding documents for simple consulting packages or consulting packages with a value not exceeding VND 500 million or urgent consulting packages that need to be carried out immediately due to progress requirements, the amendment of bidding documents is carried out at least 3 working days before the bid closing date.

Thus, the new regulations have supplemented the time for organizing contractor selection for simple consulting packages or consulting packages with a value not exceeding VND 500 million or urgent consulting packages that need to be carried out immediately due to progress requirements.

Above are the new points of the amended Law on Bidding 2024. If clients have any related questions or need legal advice on bidding and investment, please contact Viet An Law for the best consultation and support!