How to bid for government contracts in South Korea

Korean government procurement in one paragraph

Central government contracts follow the Act on Contracts to Which the State is a Party and its Enforcement Decree. International bidding has a special decree, which implements Korea’s commitments under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). Local governments follow the Local Contract Act. The Public Procurement Service (PPS) is the central procurement agency. Buying bodies must ask it to contract above set amounts, and it runs price agreements and an online shopping mall. Of the KRW 238.5 trillion bought in 2025:

Local governments: 39%.
Public institutions: 38%.
Central government: 23%.
SMEs: won 62.7%.

Where Korean tenders are published

Where	What’s on it
KONEPS (나라장터, g2b.go.kr)	The national e-procurement single window. Bid notices must go on an e-procurement system, and KONEPS carried KRW 145.8 trillion, 61% of procurement, in 2025.
PPS English site (pps.go.kr/eng)	Tender notice search and a foreign supplier guide.
DAPA’s d2b (d2b.go.kr)	Defence procurement, run separately by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. Foreign defence suppliers usually work through registered local representatives.
Public bodies’ own systems	Some public institutions still run their own e-procurement systems. They are gradually being merged into KONEPS.

The next-generation KONEPS opened on 6 January 2025 and went into full operation on 31 March 2025. It moved to cloud infrastructure, replaced fingerprint security tokens with simpler authentication, and added AI recommendations. The launch brought outages and tens of thousands of complaints, and a data-centre fire took it offline from 26 to 29 September 2025.

The thresholds

Korea sets its international-bidding thresholds in won every two years. These apply from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026:

Buyer	Goods and services	Works
Central government	KRW 230 million	KRW 8.8 billion
Public institutions	KRW 710 million	KRW 26.5 billion

Above these, contracts go through international bidding. Below them, several domestic rules apply:

SME reservation: goods and services under KRW 100 million are reserved for small and micro businesses. From KRW 100 million up to the threshold, they are reserved for SMEs. These purchases are closed to international bidding.
Single-quote contracts: up to KRW 20 million for goods and services, or KRW 100 million with small, micro, women-owned or disability-owned firms. Up to KRW 400 million for general construction.
Regional restriction: works under KRW 8.8 billion can be limited to local firms.

How contracts are procured

General competitive bidding is the default. Limited, designated and negotiated (수의계약) contracts are exceptions.
Lowest price with qualification review (적격심사): bids at or below the reserve price are ranked from the lowest, then checked for capacity.
Comprehensive evaluation (종합심사낙찰제): required for works of KRW 10 billion or more and some large design and construction-management services.
Large works of KRW 30 billion or more use design-build, alternative or technical-proposal bids.
Contract by negotiation (협상에 의한 계약): for goods and services where expertise, technology or security matter, widely used for software and IT. Bidders submit proposals, a shortlist is chosen, and the best value is negotiated.
Multiple Award Schedule (MAS): price agreements with suppliers, ordered through the KONEPS online shopping mall, at prices no higher than the supplier’s market price.

Minimum bid periods:

International bidding: at least 40 days, cut to 10 for urgency, repeat contracts, or after a procurement plan notice published 40 days or more in advance.
Domestic: at least 7 days as standard, and 40 days for works of KRW 5 billion or more without a site briefing.

What you need to qualify

Registration as an overseas supplier (국외소재업체) with the PPS:

Who: firms with manufacturing or supply facilities abroad, which must be a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer of the goods.
When: open all year, up to the day before the bid.
What: the application form plus your home-country business registration certificate. Every document must be in Korean or carry a notarised Korean translation.

Authentication. Bidding on KONEPS needs Korean digital authentication, and the published procedure for foreign certificates predates the new KONEPS, so ask the PPS registration team how to set it up. Many foreign suppliers work with a Korean agent, and in defence that is the norm.

Language.

Korean is the rule, even for international bids.
International notices must summarise the key details in English, French or Spanish, and bid documents may also allow one of those languages, with Korean prevailing if versions differ.
PPS tenders for foreign goods are usually prepared in English.

Experience. For international bids, buyers can’t require a track record in Korea unless it is essential.

Bonds:

Bid bond: at least 5% of the bid.
Performance bond: at least 10% of the contract.
Crisis option: both can be halved under a finance-ministry crisis notice.
Foreign goods: PPS tenders for foreign goods take bonds by irrevocable letter of credit.

Direct production. Products reserved for SME competition need confirmation that the bidder produces them directly.

How bids are assessed and challenged

Objections, under the rules in force since 11 June 2026:

File: within 30 days of the decision, or 25 days of learning of it.
Agency decision: within 15 days.
Further review: apply to the State Contract Dispute Mediation Committee within 30 days.
International bids: any breach of the procurement agreement is also grounds for an objection.

Getting paid

Korea pays fast:

Inspection within 14 days of the completion notice.
Payment within 5 days of the claim after inspection.
Progress payments at least every 30 days.
Price adjustment: prices can be adjusted for inflation at least 90 days after contracting, when costs move by 3% or more.

Bidding from outside Korea, including from India

Korea has been a GPA party since 1997. Suppliers from GPA countries, such as the US, the EU, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia and Singapore, are protected from discrimination on covered international tenders, on a reciprocal basis.

India has no such protection. It has been only an observer to the GPA since 2010. Korean law’s non-discrimination rule covers suppliers and goods from GPA parties, so Indian companies have no legal right to equal treatment. The law doesn’t ban them either, so whether they can bid depends on each tender notice.

India and Korea are negotiating an upgrade of their 2010 trade agreement, the CEPA. Talks were revived at a leaders’ summit in April 2026, and the latest round in May 2026 added new working groups. Government procurement wasn’t mentioned among them.

In practice, for an Indian company:

Register with the PPS as an overseas supplier, with notarised Korean translations.
Work with a Korean agent for authentication, tender monitoring and Korean-language documents.
Target international tenders by central government and public institutions above the thresholds, which run 40-day processes.
Skip SME-reserved purchases. Most goods and services below the thresholds are reserved for Korean SMEs and closed to foreign bidders.
Budget for the bonds: 5% to bid, 10% to perform.

What changed in 2025–2026

January–March 2025: the next-generation KONEPS opened, after a troubled launch.
26–29 September 2025: a data-centre fire took KONEPS offline for three days.
1 October 2025: goods bought for resale and SME-reserved products were excluded from international bidding.
November 2025: a procurement innovation plan proposed more purchasing autonomy for public institutions and local governments from 2027.
2 January 2026: procurement law moved to the renamed Ministry of Economy and Finance.
May 2026: a reduced performance-bond option for long-term contracts in a crisis.
11 June 2026: longer deadlines for objections took effect.
Coming: new international-bidding thresholds for 2027–2028 are expected around December 2026.

Questions

Can Indian companies bid for Korean government contracts?

They can register with the Public Procurement Service as overseas suppliers and bid where the tender notice allows foreign bidders, mainly international tenders above the thresholds. But Korean law guarantees non-discrimination only to suppliers and goods from WTO Government Procurement Agreement parties, and India is only an observer. So Indian firms have no legal right to equal treatment, and eligibility depends on each tender notice.

What is KONEPS?

Korea’s national e-procurement system, also called Nara Marketplace (나라장터), at g2b.go.kr. Every bid notice must be published on an e-procurement system, and KONEPS carried 61% of public procurement in 2025. A next-generation version opened in January 2025, moving to the cloud and replacing security tokens with simpler authentication.

What are Korea’s international bidding thresholds?

For 2025 and 2026: KRW 230 million for goods and services and KRW 8.8 billion for works bought by central government, and KRW 710 million and KRW 26.5 billion for public institutions. Contracts above these go through international bidding with at least 40 days to bid.

How does a foreign company register with the Public Procurement Service?

Register as an overseas supplier (국외소재업체) at any time up to the day before the bid. You need the application form and your home-country business registration certificate, with every document in Korean or with a notarised Korean translation. You must be a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer of the goods.

How do I object to a Korean procurement decision?

File an objection with the contracting agency within 30 days of the decision, or 25 days of learning of it. The agency must decide within 15 days, and you can then seek review by the State Contract Dispute Mediation Committee within 30 days. These longer deadlines apply from 11 June 2026.

How quickly does the Korean government pay?

Fast. Delivery must be inspected within 14 days of the completion notice, and payment made within 5 days of the claim after inspection. Long contracts get progress payments at least every 30 days.

Sources

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.

How to bid for government contracts in South Korea.