International Tenders - France

With effect from 1st September 2006, Paris has implemented a new law on public procurement. The updated law on public procurement closely reflects EU requirements as formalised, for example, in directives 2004/17/EC (public procurement in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors) and 2004/18/EC (public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts). 

Changes include:

• Introduction of a dynamic public procurement process: An electronic bidding process which makes it possible for all interested companies meeting the project-specific suitability criteria to participate in the tendering process
• Improvement of participation conditions for small and medium-sized companies. For example:
• Previous participation in similar tendering processes is no longer a precondition for companies wishing to participate in tendersThe public sector awards contracts amounting to approx. 16% of a country’s GDP (approx. 1500 billion € in the EU) each year. These projects are advertised publicly, are independent of the economic situation and offer interesting export possibilities for Swiss SMEs in all industries.
  
  The tendering platform STEP (Selective Tenders & Projects) continually collects national and international business opportunities and invitations to tenders and passes on invitations to tender and projects which are relevant to the registered Swiss SMEs without time delays.
  
  As a subscriber to STEP each Swiss SME can access the entire STEP database and therefore also receive information about important projects from the private sector. These additional business opportunities are checked by the Osec external network (comprising 93 embassies, 12 missions at international organisations as well as 41 general consulates and the 16 Swiss Business Hubs), and are recorded in STEP.
  
  Why not take the opportunity to test STEP free of charge? Register at: ‹http://www.tenders.ch›
• Participation criteria must be tailored to suit the requirements of the public contract
• Equality in terms of technical specifications: At tender stage, the bidder is able to apply the specifications relevant to their own market, as long as these correspond to the prescribed specifications
• Formation of bid consortiums
• Simpler procedures/formalities for urgent cases (na)