ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 10. Kazakhstan signed the first contracts for public procurement under new simplified rules, reducing the period of review of tender documentation from 5 to 2 working days, Trend reports.
Additionally, the application submission period has been reduced from 15 down to 5 business days, while the review of applications and announcement of results is now done in 3 business days instead of 10. As a result, the winner of a competition or auction will be determined within a maximum of 10 business days.
The first public procurement contracts under the new simplified rules, which came into force on January 1, 2025, have already been signed in Kazakhstan. These changes allow for quicker project launches, including socially significant ones, and help minimize the risk of price increases. Local companies are primarily winning the contracts, which supports regional businesses and economies.
On July 1, 2024, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law on public procurement aimed at simplifying and reducing bureaucracy in the procedures. The law introduced new rules, including the maximum reduction of procurement timelines.
Winners of procurement via competition using a rating-point system (an automated procurement method where the winner is determined by a web portal) are now chosen within 5 business days (previously it was 29 business days) based on accumulated points. Points are awarded for factors such as work experience, consistent tax payments, and the absence of delays.
The procurement timelines for price quotation requests have been reduced from 5 to 2 days. Furthermore, conditional discounts for local suppliers have increased from 1 percent to 2 percent.
One of the first competitions in the country held under the new rules was for the construction of a youth sports school in the village of Zherenda, Akmolinsk region of Kazakhstan. It was announced on January 8 of this year, and the results were concluded within 6 business days. By January 16, the contractor had already begun the work.
"The project costs over 2 billion tenge ($3.8 million). The contractor was selected through the new public procurement system with a rating-point system, significantly shortening the competition timeline. This allowed us to start construction on January 16. The project will be completed by the end of the year, and the facility will be commissioned. We also focus on local contractors, who receive additional points in the system, encouraging their participation," said Azamat Baikuanyshev, acting head of the Construction, Architecture, and Urban Planning Department of the Akmolinsk region.
To note, as of February 10, 2025, a total of 282,703 contracts worth 951.3 billion tenge ($1.8 billion) have been signed under the new rules. Comparatively, 165,558 contracts worth 223.2 billion tenge ($424.08 million) were concluded in the same period last year. The number of complaints decreased by more than 22 percent compared to last year—from 1,700 down to 1,320.