Interesting opportunities through public procurement in Switzerland

Public procurement represents an important part of the Swiss economy and has therefore a quite large commercial potential. If you just look at the federal level, the Swiss Confederation issued in 2019 tenders for a value of 7.4 billion CHF. If you count in the cantons and municipalities as well, a yearly total between 35 and 40 billion CHF is issued.

In 2019, construction (43%), goods (22%) and ICT (21%) and services others than ICT and consulting (11%) were the main sources of expenses at the federal level. About 9% of payments made for acquisitions (559 million CHF) went to companies established abroad, mainly from Germany.

Simap.ch is the electronic platform shared by the federal, cantonal and communal levels where you can download the documents on all tenders across Switzerland. When subscribing to this platform, you are automatically informed on new tenders in your field(s) of interest.

In order to meet the new WTO requirements, as of January 2021, tenders will be awarded according to harmonized rules and less stringent procedures, whereby the price won’t be the only selection criterion. The adjudicator will also have to take into consideration a number of criteria including the quality of the service, the durability, the plausibility of the offer and the reliability of the price.

Want to know more about Swiss tenders in your sectors? Contact us.