Research · Updated: October 11, 2026 · 8 min read

IT tenders in Uzbekistan: almost half of procurements fail. Where newcomers have a chance

IT tenders in Uzbekistan fail far more often than most people assume. Between 1 September and 10 October 2026, 180 IT lots were published on UZEX, the public procurement platform. The outcome is already known for 99 of them, and 48 failed. Among banks, 24 of 31 lots failed. We look at who buys IT, why the procedures fall through and where a small IT firm actually has a chance.

Data from Tanlo and the UZEX platform as of 11 October 2026. Methodology is at the end of the article.

Who buys IT and for how much

Across all six of its sources, Tanlo collected 239 IT tenders from 107 customers over this period. Banks buy the most: 60 lots worth UZS 179.7 bn. The leader is Sanoat Qurilish Bank (SQB, formerly Uzpromstroybank) with 29 lots, followed by Xalq Bank (8) and Business Development Bank (Biznesni rivojlantirish banki, 7). Other customers include the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the mobile operator UMS, Uzauto Motors Powertrain, the state IT company Uzinfocom and the Central Bank.

235 lots priced in UZS. Typical price is the median starting price across the 202 lots where a price is given: half of the lots cost more, half cost less.

The largest lot of the period was servers for the Ministry of Internal Affairs' "Safe City" system, worth UZS 525.6 bn. That tender failed. Xalq Bank's selection for its XB-ERP corporate system, worth UZS 9 bn, also fell through. Expensive software is ordered mostly by banks and state-owned companies. Small lots exist too, though: 42 lots were worth up to UZS 100 mln.

Why IT procurements fail

Under the Law on Public Procurement (ZRU-684), a selection of best offers (otbor, the most common competitive procedure) fails if one offer or none is submitted. A tender fails if there is only one participant or all bids are rejected. In other words, after review there are not two eligible bids left. The reasons vary:

• no bids were submitted at all;
• the bidder's price was above the starting price, and the system rejected it automatically;
• the bidder failed qualification or did not reach the required technical score;
• the starting price was below market, or the technical specification was written around a specific product.

Services fail most often: 21 of 33. Computer supply lots failed less often, 8 of 24. Any distributor can deliver laptops, but servicing a bank's equipment in a region requires your own engineers on site. Some of the failures are repeat announcements of the same purchase. If each purchase is counted once, 33 of 83 failed, or 40%. This is a snapshot of five and a half weeks, and annual figures may differ. But the trend is clear: customers are short of suitable contractors.

Example. SQB is looking for a contractor to service office and network equipment and refill toner cartridges in Kashkadarya region. The lot is worth UZS 95 mln, with no bid deposit and no advance payment. It was announced on 3, 23 and 30 September, and each time the selection failed. The fourth announcement (lot 518087) accepts bids until 15 October.

A failed lot is worth a look, but winning it is not guaranteed. Before you bid, do three things:

• compare the starting price with the market;
• read the qualification requirements and the technical score threshold;
• check whether the technical specification names a particular brand.

If anything is unclear, send the customer a question within the clarification period. Do not bid just because there are few competitors. After a failure, the customer runs a new selection, and for lots below UZS 44 mln it may switch to the e-shop.

The rules for buying IT

The rules depend on the customer. A budget customer is a ministry, a hokimiyat (local administration) or a school. A corporate customer is a company with 50% or more state ownership, such as SQB, Xalq Bank or UMS. Since 1 September 2026, 1 BRV (base calculation amount, the unit used for procurement thresholds) equals UZS 440,000.

ZRU-684, Articles 19, 49, 52, 56, 64. How the procedures differ is explained in "Auction, tender, selection and e-shop".

The law prohibits buying services and development at auction. So anything above UZS 22–44 mln usually goes through a selection or a tender: of the 180 IT lots on UZEX, 163 were selections and 17 were tenders. Small purchases are not included in this sample. They go through the e-shop (the platform's electronic catalogue for small purchases), and that is the easiest place for a newcomer to start.

What matters specifically in IT

1. How bids are scored. 100 of the 180 lots use points-based scoring. In 84 of them, price accounts for only 30% of the score; the rest is the technical part, based on criteria in the documentation: usually experience with similar contracts, specialists and timelines. The customer sets the price weight, and the law sets no minimum. A newcomer without similar contracts finds this harder than the 80 lots where the lowest price among technically compliant bids wins.
2. Specifications are vetted in advance. Government bodies and companies with 50% or more state ownership send the technical specification of any IT project for expert review, whatever its value. The review takes up to 30 days. 16 of the 17 IT tenders had an expert opinion attached. The customer cannot rewrite the documents quickly, so ask your questions within the clarification period.
3. Preferences for local companies. Since 1 October 2026, budget customers apply a 15% price preference to domestic services over imported ones. It helps when you are competing with a foreign company. It does not apply to banks and state-owned companies. Separately, government bodies may hold competitions of up to UZS 1 bn restricted to residents of IT Park (Uzbekistan's tech park for IT companies), but this is their right, not an obligation.
4. Some projects bypass bidding. Government bodies may commission system development from the "Single Integrator UZINFOCOM" without a tender. Support and further development of software already purchased can also be ordered directly. That is why maintaining someone else's system is often out of reach through bidding. At the same time, Uzinfocom itself comes to the platform as a customer: it announced 6 IT lots over the period.
5. A licence is usually not needed. Software development and IT services do not require a licence. One is needed, for example, for designing and building telecommunications networks and for cryptographic protection tools. Cybersecurity tools for government systems must be certified.

How much money you need and when you get paid

• Bid deposit. Up to 3% of the starting price in a selection and up to 5% in a tender. A deposit was required in 148 of the 180 IT lots, and in 121 of them it was exactly 3%. If the winner refuses to sign the contract, the deposit is not returned and the company is added to the register of unscrupulous contractors. Only bid if you are ready to work at your price.
• Advance payment. An advance is provided for in 136 lots: most often 30% (82 lots) or 15% (39). For budget customers these are the rules: a 15% prepayment, or 30% for contracts up to UZS 1 bn. Corporate customers set their own terms. Half of the banks' IT lots come with no advance, so you will need working capital for the full term of the contract.
• Other costs. Add the platform fee and the contract performance guarantee. The full calculation is in "How much money you need for a tender".

How many competitors to expect

According to UZEX's open register of deals, 292 IT deals worth UZS 528.7 bn were concluded in 2026. Almost half of them had no more than two participants: 40% had exactly two, and 8% had one (such deals happen in repeat procedures and under corporate rules). The typical discount from the starting price is 7.2%. With two participants it is 4.8%; with six or more, 21.4%. Of the 208 winners in 2026, 58 won on this platform for the first time. They are not necessarily young firms, but the market is open to new names. More in our study "Who wins tenders in Uzbekistan".

Where to actually start

1. The e-shop and small lots. These are services up to UZS 22–44 mln and equipment. Competition there is on price, and experience is barely assessed.
2. Regional service. Equipment servicing for banks and state-owned companies in the regions fails most often. Lots where the lowest price wins are especially interesting.
3. Subcontracting. You can work for the winners of large lots. It is a way to build up similar contracts that will later earn you points.
4. Readiness to bid. An electronic digital signature (EDS), registration on xarid.uzex.uz, no tax debts, copies of similar contracts and specialists' CVs. It is better to have all this ready before the right lot appears.

Tanlo collects IT tenders from UZEX, xt-xarid.uz, tenderweek.com and corporate customers' websites into a single "Information technology" feed (in Russian). New lots matching your filters are sent to Telegram, including re-announcements of failed purchases. On the morning of 11 October 2026, 62 IT tenders worth UZS 277.7 bn were open there.

Methodology

Tenders are taken from the Tanlo database, "Information technology" category. The category is assigned by AI based on the tender text and may be wrong for individual lots. The sample includes lots published between 1 September and 10 October 2026 on six sources: 239 lots in total, of which 180 are UZEX selections and tenders (xarid.uzex.uz / etender.uzex.uz). Statuses, method and scoring weights, bid deposit and advance payment were taken on 11 October 2026 from the pages of these 180 lots. The outcome is known for 99 lots: 48 failed, 43 have a protocol, and 8 were cancelled by the customer. For the remaining 81 lots, bidding is still open or the result has not been announced. "Repeat announcements" were identified by matching customer and starting price. "Banks" are customers with the word "bank" in their name. Deals are taken from the open register of completed deals on etender.uzex.uz, Tanlo download of 10 October 2026. IT deals were selected by keywords in the lot title, so this is a sample, not a complete count. Legal sources: ZRU-684 (Articles 19, 48, 49, 52, 56, 61, 64, 68, 69, 71); Cabinet Resolution No. 276 (paras. 15, 67–68, 116–117); Presidential Resolution PP-4328 (para. 3, para. 27 of the Regulation); Presidential Decree UP-17 (para. 12(v)); Presidential Resolution PP-4699 (para. 10); Presidential Resolution PP-3245 (paras. 4–5); Law ZRU-701 (Annex 1, Nos. 32, 42); Law ZRU-764 (Article 19); Budget Code (Article 122); Cabinet Resolution No. 241 (para. 1-1).

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