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The New Threshold for Procurement Contracts: Raising the Bar to 300 Million

1 December, 2024

National Assembly Passes Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Planning, Investment, Public-Private Partnership Investment, and Bidding

Prior to the law’s passage, the National Assembly heard a report from Vu Hong Thanh, Chairman of the Economic Committee, on the absorption, editing, and explanation of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, Investment, Public-Private Partnership Investment, and Bidding.

Mr. Vu Hong Thanh stated that after being absorbed and edited, the Law draft has amended and supplemented 119 articles, clauses, and 3 Appendices of 4 Laws; added 1 new article and removed 1 article compared to the Law draft presented to the National Assembly at the 8th session.

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Bidding Law, to absorb the opinions of the National Assembly deputies, ensuring flexibility in administration, the Law draft edited Article 29 to prescribe the principle of applying the selection of contractors in special cases and assigning the Government to elaborate on this article.

At the same time, to meet the requirements of deploying special projects that cannot be implemented through normal bidding, the Law draft has supplemented Article 34a prescribing the selection of investors in special cases, following the direction of prescribing principles and assigning the Government to elaborate on this article to ensure flexibility and timely amendment and supplementation when necessary, meeting the requirements of administrative reform and in line with practical requirements.

In addition, to absorb the opinions of the National Assembly deputies, the Law draft has edited the bidding package limit from VND 100 million to VND 300 million for non-project procurement packages, while not distinguishing the bidding package limit between packages using recurrent expenditure capital and public investment capital; supplemented the case of designated bidding for excavation and restoration packages of national-level relics, special national-level relics, and world heritage sites.

Amend the provisions to ensure competition between contractors participating in the bid and consulting contractors in the same package for packages belonging to state-owned economic groups, parent companies, and subsidiaries; apply the method of one-stage two-envelope for packages requiring advanced technology and high technology; allow public health facilities to self-determine the procurement of drugs, medical equipment, and vaccines…

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Investment Law, the National Assembly Standing Committee believes that the special investment procedure is a new policy to attract investment in priority areas such as innovation and high technology.

In the spirit of innovation in law-making, the Law draft has been edited to streamline the contents of the dossier and procedure, retaining only the necessary principles and specific contents, ensuring that the principles in the Law draft presented to the National Assembly remain unchanged.

At the same time, to absorb the opinions of the National Assembly deputies, the Law draft has supplemented the Information Technology Park and the Free Trade Area into the area applying special investment procedures in Clause 1, Article 36a, contributing to the synchronization of policies, creating a favorable basis for attracting investment and developing these areas. To ensure feasibility and flexibility in administration, the Government is assigned to elaborate on this article, including the content of the project’s conformity with the relevant planning.

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Planning Law, on the adjustment of planning in a concise procedure, the National Assembly Standing Committee believes that this is a new regulation, supplemented compared to the current Law, which is experimental and unstable.

Closely following the spirit of innovation in law-making, the Law draft has been absorbed and edited to only prescribe the principles, bases, and authority for planning adjustment, and the Government is assigned to elaborate to ensure flexibility and practicality.

At the same time, to resolve difficulties in implementing urgent projects and urgent tasks that change some planning contents, including the fields of electricity and natural resources and the environment, the Law draft has been edited as follows: Supplementing the basis for adjusting the planning in a concise procedure for urgent and urgent projects according to the Government’s regulations; decentralizing the Minister, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee to approve the adjustment of the national sector planning and provincial planning according to the concise procedure; supplementing the content of decentralization for ministries and ministerial-level agencies to issue plans to implement the national sector planning to ensure flexibility in organizing the implementation of planning…

Nhat Quang