How to win your first lot in public procurement in Uzbekistan: a step-by-step plan for newcomers

What to prepare before your first lot

1. An EDS key. Electronic public procurement is open only to those with an electronic digital signature (EDS), and the contract is signed with it too (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, para. 9). How to get and set up a key: see our guide to e-signatures and E-imzo.
2. An account on the platform. On UZEX (the Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange, which operates procurement platforms), a company or an individual entrepreneur registers at id.uzex.uz with an EDS key and provides its bank code (MFO), taxpayer identification number (TIN), bank account, director and address. You log in to xarid.uzex.uz with the same account.
3. Money in your account. You can take part only when your personal account with the Settlement and Clearing House holds an advance payment covering the commission and the deposit (Resolution No. 276, paras. 8, 11). This “advance payment” is your own money sitting in that account, not a prepayment to anyone. In the e-shop the deposit is 3% (para. 14). A worked example is in our guide to deposits.
4. Debts and the register. A participant must have no overdue tax debt, no unexecuted court decisions, no insolvency proceedings and no entry in the Unified Register of Unscrupulous Contractors (Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Public Procurement” No. ZRU-684, Art. 36). The system checks this against government databases (Resolution No. 276, para. 19), and a debt is grounds for disqualification (ZRU-684, Art. 42). Before you bid, check your taxpayer account and pay off even a debt of a few thousand soums (UZS).
5. Beneficial owner. A participant must disclose its principal beneficial owner (ZRU-684, Art. 23, part 3).
6. For the e-shop: your own offer. The price request goes to the author of the selected offer and to everyone who offers a similar product in the e-shop (ZRU-684, Art. 51, part 2). No offer, no invitation — so post yours in advance under the same classifier code.

Where to start: the e-shop or a selection

Two routes are easiest for a newcomer: the UZEX e-shop and the selection of the best offers (a “selection”). Tenders are for large purchases: over 25,000 BCV (≈ 11 billion soums) per contract, or over 6,000 BCV (≈ 2.64 billion soums) for budget customers. The BCV, or base calculation value, is the unit Uzbek law uses to set amounts; we convert at a BCV of 440,000 soums. Requirements and deposits (up to 5%) are higher in tenders, which is usually too much for a first lot.

Under Presidential Decree PF-259, since 1 January 2026 an e-shop offer stays active for 60 days; the text of the law still says 15 working days (Decree PF-259, para. 8(g)). An important detail: the contract is drawn up on the terms of the offer the customer selected and at the lowest price (ZRU-684, Art. 51, part 9). If you win on someone else’s offer, its delivery time becomes yours. How to work in the e-shop: see our guide to the UZEX e-shop.

How to choose your first lot

The goal of your first lot is not profit but your first completed contract. What to look for:

• A small amount. A mistake costs less, and less of your money is frozen as a deposit.
• A delivery time you can really meet. Plan it day by day: where you’ll get the goods, how you’ll deliver them and do the paperwork. A 1–2 day delivery time is a warning sign; see our breakdown of e-shop risks.
• No warning signs, such as an offer created a few hours before the lot, many identical requests based on one offer, or a third-party software product. These are facts; the conclusions are yours to draw.
• A small deposit, or none.
• No experience required. Additional requirements are stated right in the notice (ZRU-684, Art. 37, part 3) — read the documents.
• Time to spare before bidding closes, for the paperwork and a question to the customer.

TenderMax gives every lot a newcomer’s chance score from 0 to 100, with reasons: experience required lowers it, no deposit raises it, a 1–2 day delivery time caps it at 12. This is TenderMax’s estimate, not a rule of law and not a guarantee of winning. The “Good for newcomers” filter shows lots that score 65 or higher and have no warning signs.

Start with an industry you know well: you already know where to source the goods and what they cost. To make sure you don’t miss a suitable lot, set up alerts in our Telegram bot by industry, region and lot size.

How to price your bid

Your price starts from your costs, not from a competitor’s price. Include:

1. The cost of the goods or the service.
2. Delivery to the customer’s address, loading and unloading.
3. Taxes under your tax regime; check with your accountant.
4. The exchange’s commission: in practice 0.15% of the deal amount; check the rate that applies after 1 October 2026 on the platform.
5. The deposit: not an expense, but the money is blocked until the results, and if you win, until the contract is signed or performed.
6. Time until payment: in the e-shop the money arrives after delivery and acceptance, so you need working capital for that period.

How far can you cut the price?

If in the e-shop you go 20% or more below the selected offer’s price (in an auction, below the starting price), you need an additional deposit equal to the difference (capped at 100 or 1,000 BCV, depending on the offer amount); otherwise the bid is rejected automatically (Resolution No. 276, paras. 43, 54). The law prohibits bidding “at artificially low prices” and then refusing to sign or perform the contract (ZRU-684, Art. 46).

Under Decree PF-259, since 1 March 2026 the special information portal has been calculating an average market price with the help of AI. If the starting price or the contract price deviates noticeably from the average, the purchase is treated as high-risk and checked first (Decree PF-259, para. 3; para. 4(a)). That is a reason to check the customer, not to reject your bid. But a price below your cost is a straight loss.

How to submit a bid: common newcomer mistakes

• Not reading the technical specification to the end. Quantity, delivery place, deadline, certificates — it’s all in the technical specification.
• Asking too late. Ask about anything unclear in the open electronic chat: the customer answers within two working days (ZRU-684, Art. 41; Resolution No. 276, paras. 87, 141). In a tender, send your request no later than two working days before bidding closes — then an answer is mandatory (ZRU-684, Art. 67, part 7). Any other negotiations with the customer before the winner is chosen are prohibited (ZRU-684, Art. 40).
• An empty mandatory field, a missing file, a price above the starting price. The system rejects such a bid automatically and states the reason (ZRU-684, Art. 61, part 2; Art. 69, part 4).
• The language of the bid. Bids are prepared in the state language (Uzbek) and, where necessary, in other languages (ZRU-684, Art. 59, part 2).
• Submitting in the last hour. Your EDS password, the internet connection or a heavy file can let you down. You can change or withdraw a bid until bidding closes (ZRU-684, Art. 60), so it is safer to submit early and double-check afterwards.
• Bidding on the same lot as an affiliated company. This is prohibited (ZRU-684, Art. 23, part 4).

Other reasons for rejection and how to challenge the results are covered in a separate guide.

After you win: contract, payment, delivery

E-shop and auction

The system registers the deal and sends the contract, on a standard form, to both parties’ personal accounts (ZRU-684, Art. 51; Resolution No. 276, para. 21). For a budget customer, the Ministry of Finance transfers the amount to the Settlement and Clearing House within one working day; a corporate customer has ten working days (paras. 23–24). No later than the next working day, the clearing house notifies you that the money has arrived — that notice is the basis for delivery (para. 26), and in practice the delivery deadline is counted from it. Deliver earlier and the risk of non-payment is yours (para. 27).

After full acceptance, the customer reports it within three working days; within one working day the operator then sends the payment and unblocks your deposit (paras. 28–31).

Selection and tender

In a selection, the results protocol is open for objections for two working days (ZRU-684, Art. 62); the contract is signed no later than ten working days after the winner is determined (Resolution No. 276, paras. 103, 161). A budget customer pays under such a contract without going through the clearing house accounts, and prepayment terms are set in the contract (para. 23).

Don’t walk away from a contract after you win: in a selection or a tender you lose the deposit (ZRU-684, Art. 63, part 3; Art. 70, part 2), and a winner who refuses goes on the Unified Register of Unscrupulous Contractors and cannot take part in public procurement for two years (Art. 48). The essential terms of the contract — product, quality, quantity, price, deadline — cannot be changed later (Art. 34, part 10).

Are there benefits for small businesses?

Honestly, hardly any. ZRU-684, Resolution No. 276 and Decree PF-259 contain no special benefits for small businesses or new companies — only a general task of ensuring broad participation by entrepreneurs (ZRU-684, Art. 17).

The only benefit we found is narrow: in the e-shop, where the price and other terms are equal, priority goes to a bid from a small business that employs people with disabilities, women and young people (Presidential Resolution PP-249, para. 1).

The business must meet one of the criteria in the annex to Presidential Resolution PP-249 of 10 July 2024: at least half of the staff are people with disabilities, or women (and the director is a woman), or young people aged 30 or under (and so is the director); or all three groups together make up at least 70% of the staff. There are also conditions on this being their main job, their share of the payroll and at least 6 months of employment at the company.

Local producers get more preferences: the regional “national shop” (milliy doʻkon; Resolution No. 276, paras. 45–46), extra points for the localization level in selections and tenders (paras. 95¹, 155¹), and since 1 July 2026 customers must first look into buying from local producers (Decree PF-259, Annex 4, para. 4(a)).

FAQ

Can a company with no experience win a tender in Uzbekistan?

Yes, the law allows it. Experience is not mandatory everywhere: additional requirements apply only if they are stated in the notice (ZRU-684, Art. 37) and must not be inflated (Art. 34, part 9). Start with lots that don’t require experience.

How much money do I need for my first lot?

In the e-shop, for a lot of 20 million soums the 3% deposit is 600,000 soums, plus the commission after you win (in practice 0.15%, about 30,000 soums); in a selection, up to 3% or nothing; in a tender, up to 5% (Resolution No. 276, paras. 14–15). You also need working capital for the goods: in the e-shop, payment comes only after delivery.

Can an individual entrepreneur or a non-resident take part in public procurement in Uzbekistan?

Under the law, a participant is an individual or a legal entity, resident or non-resident of Uzbekistan (ZRU-684, Art. 23). On UZEX, both companies and individual entrepreneurs register with an EDS; if you are a non-resident, check the registration steps with the platform operator.