Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved the framework to implement the electronic government procurement system in a bid to enhance transparency and reduce costs in the procurement.
Muasamcong.mpi.gov.vn serves as the e-procurement platform. Via the portal, suppliers can get access to public procurement law and regulations, notices of invitations to tenders, guidelines to participate in a tender, and bidding results.
Vietnam expects to start rolling out the national bidding network system in 2018 in which all businesses looking to work with government bodies, mainly at the ministerial level, will have to go online to get it done.
The new system will make it faster, cheaper and fairer for Vietnamese companies to bid for government procurement as long as they have internet access to submit bidding documents.
The national bidding network system is expected to set the stage for increased competition, which is hoped to improve efficiency and transparency in the award of government procurement contracts.
Vietnam sets the target of completely moving government procurement online by 2025.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has deputized the Ministry of Investment and Planning to build and manage the system.
Vietnam started piloting public procurement on a lump sum basis in 2011. After a four-year trial, the country has saved as much as VND500 billion ($22 million), official statistics show.
The Southeast Asian country spends around VND200 trillion on public procurement annually. Under the regulation, Vietnamese ministries, state agencies and provincial departments are responsible for purchasing and distributing property and equipment on bulk scale.