E-Bidding: Helping Improve Investment Attractiveness

According to Government Decree 85/2009/ND-CP dated October 15, 2009 on guiding the Bidding Law and the selection of construction contractors under the Construction Law, the Ministry of Planning and Investment was assigned by the Government to implement an electronic procurement system, and its Investment Management Department has collaborated with relevant agencies and ministries to conduct studies on this issue. Accordingly, since 2009, the Investment Management Department has received technologies from the South Korean Government and sponsored the pilot e-bidding phase from 2009 to 2011 at http://muasamcong.mpi.gov.vn. As directed by the government, three pilot units were involved in e-bidding, including Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and the Hanoi People's Committee. To quickly complete the system, on . As directed by the government, three pilot units were involved in e-bidding, including Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and the Hanoi People's Committee. To quickly complete the system, on February 27, 2010, the Investment Management Department issued Document No. 73 to guide the implementation of bidding information announcement and publication of the system.

 

According to the draft circular, online bidding is a process of using information technology networks and computing devices to select bidders in accordance with the Law on Tendering.

 

Mr Nguyen Son from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said: The online bidding pilot has been applied to the package of consulting services, goods procurement, construction and installation, and EPC and applied to open tendering, limited tendering, competitive offering and direct contracting. The online bidding process consists of five steps. Specifically, the first step is sending tendering notices. The second is issuing bidding documents, prequalification documents and other documents. The third is submitting prequalification applications, bidding profiles and proposal documents. The fourth is opening the bid and the final is announcing bidding results. Since April 9, the Investment Management Department has collected opinions from concerned ministries and agencies to complete the draft circular for issuance.

According to the rules, bidding parties must publish bidding information in bidding columns of widely published newspapers, but due to limited spaces in newspapers, only invitation and results contents will be published. Hence, with the electronic bidding system, there is no content limit for published information.

In reality, according to the experience of many countries, electronic bidding helps cut costs for contractors like travel expenses to purchase bidding documents. Before applying this technology, bidders had to send notice to newspapers posting tender invitations but when this technology is applied, contractors only need to use this electronic channel.

 

Speaking of the draft circular, Mr Van Trong Truy, Railway Project Management Board under the Vietnam Railway Administration, said: It is necessary to clearly define the obligations of publishing tenders on the system. It is also important to define treatments for virus-infected attachments so as to prevent intentional use of viruses by contractors. It is also essential to set up procedures to deal with bidding violators.

 

Mr Mai Van Tinh of the Ministry of Education and Training said that this process, based on Tender Law 61, is applied to investors using Vietnamese dong while doing nothing with foreign investments like ODA, World Bank or JICA-funded projects. Thus, the draft circular needs to take into consideration projects skipped by the Tender Law to strengthen the trust of international donors when they lend official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam and enhance the attractiveness of the investment environment.

According to Mr Nguyen Son, the electronic bidding system will help improve transparency, equality and compliance of bidding laws and minimise corruption in bidding.

 

“Hence, the introduction of electronic bidding system and related legal framework is urgently needed to increase Vietnam’s investment attractiveness,” Son added.

Kim Phuong