On August 4, 2025, the Government promulgated Decree No. 214/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 214”) guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding 2023 (as amended and supplemented in 2024 and 2025) on contractor selection, replacing Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 24”). Basically, Decree 214 inherits the provisions of Decree 24 and provides guidance on several other important aspects of the Law on Bidding 2023, specifically as follows:
1. Guidance on the application of bidding incentives
The Law on Bidding 2023 differentiates between general goods bidding and pharmaceutical bidding. However, Decree 24 only provided for incentives applicable to goods of Vietnamese origin in general goods bidding, without clarifying whether such incentives also applied to pharmaceutical bidding. To ensure consistency with the Law on Bidding 2023, Decree 214 clarifies that incentives for goods of Vietnamese origin shall also apply in pharmaceutical bidding.
In addition, in line with the policy of promoting science and technology development, Decree 214 also provides that high-tech products listed in the encouraged high-tech product list, produced by high-tech enterprises or newly established enterprises from investment projects for high-tech product manufacturing, shall be awarded additional technical points where the technical-based evaluation method is applied.
2. Contractor’s right to refuse contract finalization
Decree 214 supplements a regulation allowing contractors to refuse to finalize a contract without being negatively assessed for reputation and to receive a refund of the bid security (if any), in cases where the procuring entity imposes requirements inconsistent with the bidding documents, bid documents, contract negotiation results (if any), or the approved contractor selection decision. This provision essentially protects contractors’ legitimate rights during contract finalization. However, Decree 214 does not yet provide specific guidance on how to resolve cases where the procuring entity exercises the right to refuse contract finalization.
3. Specific guidance on cases of direct contracting
The amended Law on Bidding 2023 (2025 version) provides only general principles for direct contracting; based on this, Decree 214 specifies detailed cases of direct contracting. In addition to inherited and clarified cases (e.g., urgent packages required for national defense, security, foreign affairs, national sovereignty protection; urgent packages necessary to ensure continuous operation of medical facilities, etc.), Decree 214 adds new cases of direct contracting to suit practical needs, including:
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Packages for urgent repair/renovation of office buildings, public service residences for provincial/commune-level officials, urgent digital transformation and IT requirements to serve administrative unit rearrangement and state apparatus reorganization.
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Construction packages of a similar scale and nature to previous packages awarded through open/restricted bidding, where the contractor successfully ensured quality, progress, and efficiency, within 5 years from the previous contract signing date to the approval date of the contractor selection plan.
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Packages under special research, science, technology, and innovation projects/tasks in accordance with the laws on science, technology, and innovation.
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Packages requiring technologies or products listed in the strategic technology list under the laws on high technology; packages requiring goods/services in strategic sectors under the relevant sectoral management laws.
4. Clarification of conditions and adjustment of direct contracting procedures
Application of direct contracting (except for urgent/emergency packages) must satisfy the following conditions:
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An approved contractor selection plan;
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Approved funding arrangements for package implementation, except in cases of pre-bidding as provided under Article 42 of the Law on Bidding;
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Approved cost estimates for the package, where required under sectoral management laws.
Additionally, the direct contracting procedure has been adjusted to better reflect practice, specifically:
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Removal of the “ordinary direct contracting procedure” in which the procuring entity sent requests for proposals to multiple contractors. Under the new rule, in ordinary direct contracting, the procuring entity will identify a single contractor to invite for proposal submission; no assessment of capability and experience is required for this invited contractor.
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For simplified direct contracting, procuring entities and contractors must negotiate on price, ensuring cost savings and economic efficiency.
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For construction packages awarded to contractors who had performed effectively under a previous contract within the past 5 years, procuring entities and contractors must negotiate on price, ensuring at least 5% savings compared to the package estimate.
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Procuring entities are not required to appraise the request for proposal dossier.
Decree 214 takes effect from August 4, 2025.
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