Public procurement in Uzbekistan: a guide for suppliers

To participate, a supplier chooses a suitable lot, checks its requirements and submits an offer electronically. The Law on Public Procurement admits residents and non-residents (art. 23). The method depends on the purchase, value and evaluation criteria; documents and deadlines vary. This guide explains the applicable supplier procedure, including the 2026 changes.

In brief:

• The electronic shop, auction, selection and tender have different conditions for use (art. 30); requests for proposals also apply to specified purchases.
• A selection allows at least 5 working days (art. 58) for submissions; a tender allows 12–30 working days (art. 66).
• A bidder must meet the six eligibility requirements of art. 36 (resources, legal capacity, no tax debt, no enforcement debts, no insolvency, not in the unfair-performers register) and every mandatory condition of the documents; a bid that fails one of them is rejected regardless of price.
• Value ceilings per contract: the electronic shop up to 2,500 BRV for a budget purchaser and 25,000 BRV for a corporate one (goods); auction and selection up to 6,000 and 25,000 BRV; tender above those.
• On 6 September 2026 the portals listed 594 open selections, 66 tenders, 519 reverse auctions and 533 requests for proposals; in the cards we screened the pledge was 1–3% of the start price, the advance 0–30% and payment 10–30 days after acceptance.
• The winner is chosen using criteria published in advance (art. 32): suppliers can compare the lot requirements with their documents before submitting.

Updated: 07 September 2026

Public procurement system and methods

Who buys, where, and how much

Public purchasers fall into budget and corporate categories (art. 19). Budget purchasers include government bodies and institutions, budget organisations, recipients of budget funds for procurement, state special-purpose funds and other funds established within budget organisations. Corporate purchasers include legal entities with a state holding of at least 50 percent and organisations with the indirect ownership specified by law. Consequently, the same contract value can fall under different procedural limits.

According to the Agency for Industrial Cooperation and Public Procurement's report of 29 July 2026, procurement in the first half of the year totalled UZS 188.4 trillion: budget purchases accounted for UZS 72.9 trillion and corporate purchases for UZS 115.5 trillion. Competitive procurement reached 60 percent, or UZS 112.9 trillion; reported savings were UZS 7.8 trillion. These are period totals. Public procurement is about a fifth of the economy, and in 2025 about 43 percent of the value was still bought without competition, by direct contract or from a single source; the 2026 reforms target that share.

The portals and procurement plans

The special information portal (art. 27) brings together notices, results and information from operators. An operator's electronic system is where the procedure itself takes place. Suppliers using the Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange's platforms will need:

Procurement schedules (art. 29) help identify future orders. Budget purchasers publish their annual schedule by 25 March of the current year; corporate purchasers publish the following year's schedule by 25 December. Quarterly schedules for the next quarter are published by the 25th of the current quarter's final month. A schedule gives advance notice of demand, while the notice and procurement documents determine the conditions for an individual bid.

On 6 September 2026 our daily pull of the portals showed 594 open best-offer selections and 66 tenders on etender.uzex.uz, and 519 reverse auctions and 533 requests for proposals on xarid.uzex.uz; 236 of the 660 etender lots were in Tashkent city, and the median etender lot was about 207 million soums. In the cards we screened, the pledge was 1–3% of the start price, the advance 0–30%, payment 10–30 days after acceptance and delivery 30–180 days; several cards refused a bank guarantee in place of the cash pledge. These are observations from one day's listings; the rules that set them are below.

Account setup and electronic digital signature configuration are outside this guide's step-by-step coverage. The supplier registration guide explains access to xarid and etender and how to submit an offer. It is relevant before your first participation on a platform.

The procurement methods

The Law sets out the procurement procedures (art. 30) listed below and permits other competitive methods authorised by presidential and Cabinet acts. One BRV, the base calculation unit, is the unit used to express value thresholds. The table also shows the corresponding amounts in Uzbek soums.

The shop also has annual limits (art. 49). A budget purchaser may buy goods of the same type worth no more than 10,000 BRV (UZS 4.400.000.000) in a financial year. For works and services of the same type, the annual limit is 500 BRV (UZS 220.000.000) for a budget purchaser and 1,000 BRV (UZS 440.000.000) for a corporate purchaser.

For small purchases, the annual total per purchaser is limited to 500 or 1,000 BRV (art. 51¹): UZS 220.000.000 and UZS 440.000.000, respectively. The purchaser compares prices from public sources or requests prices from at least three potential suppliers. The requirement to approach three suppliers applies to the second alternative.

Example. A budget organisation purchases 100 identical items at an assumed price of 50 BRV each: 100 × UZS 22.000.000 = UZS 2.200.000.000. This 5,000 BRV lot exceeds the budget purchaser's shop limit of 2,500 BRV but falls within the 6,000 BRV auction limit. An auction is appropriate only if the goods are standard and their characteristics do not need comparison. If quantitative and qualitative evaluation is required, selection is considered. The provisions linked in the table establish these conditions.

Splitting purchases to circumvent competition (art. 46) is prohibited. Other prohibitions include combining items with no technological or functional connection and imposing unjustifiably high qualification requirements. Article 46 lists further prohibitions; these three are the ones a bidder meets most often.

Framework agreements, centralised procurement and single suppliers

A framework agreement (art. 38²) may be concluded with several winners of a selection or tender for between one and three years. The purchaser states the expected volume but need not place contracts for the agreement's full value. A supplier in a framework agreement receives orders as the purchaser places them, up to the announced volume.

In centralised procurement (art. 38¹), several purchasers buy goods, works or services of the same type through a body designated by the Cabinet of Ministers. The portal maintains the list of items purchased in this way.

Single-supplier status (art. 72) requires recognition through the prescribed procedure and entry in the register. The Law provides five exceptional cases: technically complex purchases without market alternatives that can be obtained only from that supplier; cultural property; suppliers designated by presidential or Cabinet acts; purchases from a natural monopoly; and works or services that only government bodies or their subordinate institutions and organisations can provide under their powers. Single-supplier status is granted in advance through the register, independently of how many bids a particular lot attracts.

Who may bid

A participant must meet all basic eligibility requirements (art. 36):

• Have the technical, financial, material, staffing and other resources necessary for performance.
• Have legal capacity to enter into the contract.
• Have no overdue taxes or levies.
• Have no outstanding obligations under court decisions recorded in the databases of the Bureau of Compulsory Enforcement under the Prosecutor General's Office.
• Not be subject to insolvency proceedings.
• Not be listed in the Unified Register of Unfair Performers.

The supplier must disclose its principal beneficial owner (art. 23), provide accurate information and submit an offer compliant with the procurement documents. A participant and its affiliate may not compete in the same lot. Individuals and legal entities, including non-residents, may participate; each bid is checked against the requirements above.

This guide covers non-residents only through the general eligibility rule. The article on foreign companies in public procurement examines currency, local performance and participation through a company or partner. These questions arise before choosing a lot involving a foreign supply.

What to check in the lot card and documents

The supplier needs the notice, technical specification, evaluation criteria and draft contract. For a selection, the procurement documentation (art. 59) contains the notice information, currency, payment and delivery terms, language requirements, clarification procedure and dates, technical specification, evaluation criteria and procedure, and the requirement for an anti-corruption statement. The attached draft contract forms an integral part of the documentation.

A tender requires the following contents (art. 67):

• The information given in the notice.
• The currency and payment arrangements for pricing and settlement.
• A requirement to prepare the offer in the state language and, where necessary, other languages.
• Information about the bid's technical and price components and how they will be evaluated.
• The procedure and opening and closing dates for clarifications.
• The technical specification.
• The criteria and procedure for examining bids.
• A requirement to submit a statement on preventing corrupt practices.

A draft contract forms part of this package too. Selection and tender documents provide for bids in the state language, with other languages where the documentation allows; check the language clause before preparing a package in Russian only.

The description of the purchase (art. 34) must identify the quantity of goods or scope of works and services, place of performance and desired or required deadlines, where applicable. The documentation sets maximum, minimum and fixed specifications. As a general rule, goods must be new unless the description provides otherwise. References to a particular brand or manufacturer are restricted; the Law retains exceptions for the shop, cases where no other adequate description is possible and “or equivalent” is added, and incompatibility between goods.

An offer for the electronic shop

A shop offer is a public offer to purchasers. Its required information (art. 50) includes:

• The name, price, minimum and maximum quantities.
• Brand, technical specifications, standardisation document or technical passport, and photograph.
• Delivery or performance region, manufacturer and country of origin.
• Warranty terms and duration, production year, and the manufacturing date for food and perishable goods.
• The expiry date and period for performing works or services.
• Information on mandatory certificates, sanitary and epidemiological, veterinary, veterinary and sanitary, or phytosanitary opinions, or environmental expert review, where required.
• Information on a licence, permit or notification of commencement of activity where mandatory for the activity concerned.

Since 2026, shop offers remain posted for 60 days, replacing the previous 15 working days. When a purchaser selects an offer, a price request begins: offers for equivalent purchases may be submitted within 2 working days (art. 51). The system compares prices automatically. If only the original offeror remains, the Law provides for electronic negotiation; the supplier has one working day to accept or reject the purchaser's request for a lower price.

Submission periods, clarifications and bid amendments

The closing date and time in the notice govern submission. The Law distinguishes the notice period from the evaluation period: the close of submissions does not itself determine the winner.

A selection bid is submitted through the personal account (art. 60); only one offer is permitted. It may be amended or withdrawn before submissions close. A tender likewise permits one offer and withdrawal (art. 68), or amendment before closing. The authenticity of files and consistency between their contents and completed fields are checked separately.

If the lot card, specification and draft contract conflict, use a request for clarification (art. 41). The general response period is two working days. Where a field in the card and an attachment conflict, the clarification answer settles which applies. In the cards we screened in September 2026 the specification and the card disagreed on delivery days (15 versus 30), on working versus calendar days and on VAT-inclusive totals.

For a tender, the request must arrive at least two working days (art. 67) before submissions close; the response is due within two working days. The purchaser may amend the documentation no later than one working day before closing, extending submissions by at least ten working days. Amendments to selection documentation require at least three additional working days (art. 59), with the decision also made no later than one working day before closing. The subject of the purchase cannot be changed.

How bids are evaluated and winners selected

A selection may use scoring or the lowest-price method. Tenders permit the same two methods. The documents state which method applies: the total score, or the lowest price among bids that pass the requirements.

Price, delivery basis and timing, characteristics, service life, payment and warranty terms, operating costs and other permissible criteria form the basis for evaluation (art. 32). The documentation must disclose their significance and application. The purchaser uses the announced criteria. In a tender, it may not require documents omitted from the requirements or assess qualifications against undisclosed criteria.

Failure to meet a mandatory criterion results in exclusion at any stage of a selection or tender. If the documentation requires a completion certificate as evidence of experience, a contract copy alone may be insufficient. Which documents are mandatory is set per lot in the criteria table.

The system rejects a selection offer for exceeding the starting price (art. 61), uncompleted mandatory fields or missing required attachments. Tenders undergo the same type of check (art. 69). In an ordinary tender evaluated in two stages, the technical component is assessed first; at least two participants must pass to proceed. A single-stage evaluation is possible if specified in the documentation.

Two-stage public procurement differs from that form of tender evaluation: after receiving initial technical offers, the purchaser refines its initial requirements (art. 70⁶), without changing the subject, and obtains final offers. The second stage requires at least two participants who passed the first.

If there is only one bid

For an ordinary selection, the Law requires at least two compliant offers (art. 61). However, a 2026 exception allows a repeated selection with one participant to proceed if the purchaser repeats the procedure and criteria unchanged and the same business is again the sole participant. That participant must satisfy the Law and properly prepare its offer.

An auction with one business participant is valid under the 2026 rules. A request for proposals also permits a single offer. These exceptions do not extend to an ordinary tender: a tender with one participant is declared unsuccessful (art. 68).

In an auction the price falls in steps (art. 54), and participants may submit price offers repeatedly before closing. Winning on price does not remove the obligation to supply goods with the stated characteristics.

Preferences for domestic producers

Each preference has its own legal basis, and all of them apply to producers of goods made in Uzbekistan with a confirmed localisation level; a locally registered importer qualifies for none of them.

When selection uses scoring, a domestic producer receives additional points proportional to localisation. The formula is: points earned × 15% × localisation share. No bonus is awarded if its price exceeds other participants' lowest price by more than 15 percent. Tenders use the same formula.

Example. A producer earns 80 points and has a confirmed localisation level of 60 percent. Additional points are 80 × 0.15 × 0.60 = 7.2, giving a total of 87.2. The calculation applies only if the price condition is met. The bonus raises the producer's score; the contract price stays the price it offered.

Electrical products have a separate preference based on imported DDP prices, using DDP (Uzbekistan) terms. Where foreign suppliers participate, the rate depends on the number of domestic producers: one gives 8 percent, two give 12 percent, and three or more give 15 percent. Purchases by corporate purchasers for commercial resale or use in production for those commercial purposes are excluded. The electrical-product rates apply to that product group only.

Since 2026, budget purchasers may hold local auctions without a value ceiling among domestic producers, with notices posted for two working days. Producers also receive electronic notifications of procurement plans. The current version sets the Producers' Ecosystem's introduction date as 1 January 2026.

Money, timing and the register

Check the financial conditions before submitting: bid security, performance security, advances and payment, delivery and acceptance periods affect the ability to perform the lot. Their detailed calculation belongs in a separate guide.

This article does not provide a full calculation of deposits, commissions or contractual payments. The guide to security, advances and contracts examines costs before bidding and cash flows after an award. It helps assess whether enough funds are available to fulfil the chosen order.

Why a bidder is excluded

The Law provides the following grounds for exclusion (art. 42):

• Entry in the Unified Register of Unfair Performers.
• Overdue taxes or levies.
• Insolvency proceedings.
• Failure to meet the documentation's qualification, technical or commercial requirements.
• A direct or indirect offer of remuneration, employment, valuables or services to an official or employee to influence procurement.
• Anticompetitive conduct, an unlawful conflict of interest or identified affiliation.

The decision and reasons are recorded in the report and communicated to the participant immediately.

The register of unfair performers

Grounds for entry in the register (art. 48) cover four groups:

• Winners refusing or evading conclusion of a contract on the procurement terms.
• Contractors found responsible through the prescribed procedure for failure or improper performance, except in cases of force majeure.
• Participants submitting false or forged documents, failing to disclose affiliates in the same lot, or failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
• Contractors convicted by a court of offences involving fraud, falsification or corruption.

The participation ban lasts two years, after which the contractor is deemed removed from the register. An entry decision may be challenged in court. An unsuccessful procurement, rejection of a bid and entry in the register are therefore distinct legal outcomes.

What changed in 2025–2026

• 22 October 2025. Cabinet Resolution No. 662 of 21.10.2025 added specific electrical-product preferences. Their rates and exceptions are explained above.
• 1 January 2026. Decree UP-259 of 26.12.2025 abolished the previous direct-purchase list while preserving cases allowed by the Law. It also introduced the request-for-proposals method, local auctions, longer shop-offer posting and sole-participant exceptions described above.
• 1 March and 23 June 2026. Decree UP-259 of 26.12.2025 provided for the market-price module to start in March. Before procurement, the purchaser establishes the average market price in the module. Law ZRU-1155 of 22.06.2026 added a requirement to observe a limit on market-price deviation (art. 33); the Cabinet of Ministers determines how that limit is set.
• 1 July 2026. Decree UP-259 of 26.12.2025 introduced exclusively electronic evaluation of offers. Suppliers therefore need to check the information and attachments on which electronic evaluation relies.

How to check the result and complain

Selection minutes are published for a two-working-day discussion period (art. 62). Objections to the results must be submitted during that period; the procurement commission does not consider later objections within this discussion procedure. After tender minutes are published, a participant may request an explanation of the result, which the purchaser must provide within three working days (art. 69).

The purchaser may cancel before accepting the winning offer (art. 44), publishing substantiated reasons within three working days. The exemption from liability for cancellation does not cover cancellation resulting from the purchaser's unlawful action or inaction.

A participant may challenge infringements by the purchaser, procurement commission, its members or the operator before the complaints commission or court (art. 78). The relevant body is the Commission for the Consideration of Complaints in Public Procurement. Collect the lot number, the disputed criterion, the submitted bid, the rejection notice, the minutes and the correspondence: the statutory list of attachments is in the complaints regulation, and this is the evidence that decides most complaints.

Under the complaints procedure (art. 79), the commission notifies the purchaser within three working days, suspends procurement for a total of up to ten working days and decides within seven working days after receiving the complaint. The purchaser and participant take part unless the participant consents to consideration in its absence or is absent without a valid reason.

If the complaint is justified, the commission may prohibit unlawful acts or procedures, cancel an unlawful decision wholly or partly, terminate the procurement procedure, or place a contractor in the register of unfair performers. Its decision binds procurement participants and may be challenged in court. A commission member with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves (art. 79¹); if the conflict is discovered after the decision, that member's vote is excluded from the results.

Even before final documentation is published, there is provision for public discussion of the draft for at least two working days. This gives suppliers another opportunity to identify restrictions on competition before preparing a bid.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find a lot's technical specification?

The technical specification forms part of the procurement documents. On etender, documents are published with the notice, and the draft contract is also part of the package. For selections, the required contents follow the documentation rules (art. 59). Compare the files with the lot card: quantities, specifications, deadlines, mandatory criteria and the bid language should be clear before submission. Raise any discrepancy through a clarification request.

Can I correct a bid after submitting it?

Before submissions close, a selection participant may amend or withdraw its offer. The same right applies to tender participants (art. 68). Check the closing date and time, replacement files and field values after making changes. After closing, the offer stands as submitted; a clarification request during evaluation only explains what was submitted.

Can I win if nobody else participates?

It depends on the procedure. Since 2026, an auction with one business participant may proceed. A selection has an exception for a repeated procurement involving the same sole participant and unchanged conditions, provided the bid requirements are met. An ordinary tender with one participant is unsuccessful. The number of bids must therefore be assessed together with the procedure and whether it has been reannounced.

What is a BRV and how do I convert a threshold into soums?

BRV means base calculation unit, used to express procurement thresholds. Multiply the number of BRV by the unit's applicable value to obtain the limit in soums. For example, the budget purchaser's small-value limit of 25 BRV (art. 51¹) is shown here as UZS 11.000.000. Check the annual limit as well: the electronic shop and the small-value procedure have both a per-contract and a per-year ceiling.

What happens if the winner refuses to sign the contract?

A winner's refusal or evasion of contracting on the procurement terms is a ground for entry in the register (art. 48). A listed contractor cannot participate in public procurement for two years and may challenge the decision in court. The security is forfeited and the contract is offered to the reserve winner; the amounts per procedure are in the deposits article.