Structure of the Government Procurement Chapter

Commitment in the field of Government Procurement that Vietnam and the EU agreed to enhance transparency and efficiency of public procurement and ensure efficient spending of the State budget. Accordingly, the Government Procurement Chapter in the EVFTA Agreement consists of two main parts:

• General provisions on rules and procedures applicable in the contractor selection process;
• Commitment to open the shopping market of the Government of Vietnam and the EU: including 2 Appendices that are Vietnam's commitment to opening up to EU contractors and 01 Appendix which is the EU's commitment to opening up to Vietnamese contractors.

Main contents of Government Procurement Chapter

General principles for all bidding packages covered by EVFTA:

• Transparency: The State must promulgate and enforce transparency rules in all steps of the bidding process. This is the group in which Vietnam has quite a few reservations on the implementation roadmap (specified in Annex 9A of the Agreement). For example, Vietnam reserves the right to electronically publish the notice of invitation to bid for a period of 10 years,
• Principle of national treatment and non-discrimination,
• Use open bidding: commit to open bidding with all bidding packages subject to adjustment unless conditions are met for limited or selective bidding procedures.
• Anti-fraud: There must be joint measures and complaint settlement to deal with corruption, fraud in public bidding …
• Electronic bidding: Vietnam and the EU agreed to facilitate the organization of bidding via electronic means, including announcing bidding package information, posting notices and bidding documents, receiving bidding documents. bidding documents and use electronic bidding if appropriate

Principles of open bidding procedures:

• Publish bidding information online / in the newspaper and free of charge;
• Early announcement of the annual tender invitation plan;
• Deadlines for submission of bids (minimum 40 days under normal circumstances, 25 days minimum only in cases where the bidding procedure is entirely online and 10 days for very few) rare cases).

Group of principles for selected bidding procedures:

• Bidding procedure does not create an unreasonable barrier to the participation of qualified bidders,
• Notice of invitation for bid must be given early enough for bidders to be properly prepared,
• The List of Registered Bidders (for packages in general) can only be used if there is a reasonable opportunity for all bidders to participate in this List and has clearly communicated the underlying contents copy of package….

Procurement packages Vietnam committed to open to EU contractors

According to EVFTA, Vietnam commits to allow EU contractors to participate in bidding packages that satisfy all of the three conditions stated in Appendix 9C: Package value; Procurement Agency; Goods and services that need to be procured. In addition, there are some exceptions in which bidding packages are not subject to the provisions of the Chapter which can be divided into groups:

• Exceptions related to type of activity;
• Exceptions relating to the type of goods;
• Service-related exceptions;
• Exceptions to construction services;
• Exceptions related to domestic preference measures;
• Other exceptions.

Public procurement packages that the EU has committed to open to Vietnam

The conditions on public procurement packages that the EU commits to open to Vietnamese contractors, goods and services are stated in Appendix 9B, Chapter 9 of the EVFTA Agreement, which also includes 03 groups of concurrent conditions procurement authority, on the type of goods / services procured and on the threshold of value).

In addition, the EU also reserves a number of exceptions, even though the procurement package conditions mentioned above have been met but are still exempt from the scope of the EVFTA commitments relating to procurement. public. Examples are: Procurement package for agricultural products in the program to promote agricultural support or provide / aid food for people; Procurement, development and production packages for television programs and broadcast contracts ...