Government E-Marketplace Preps As UK, UAE FTAs Open Up Public Procurement For Foreign Firms

The Government e-Marketplace, India's public procurement platform, has initiated work on integrating global tendering features to make the portal ready to meet commitments made as part of the UK and UAE free trade agreements.

Newly appointed CEO Mihir Kumar, speaking to reporters on Monday, said GeM started work on allowing global firms to bid for government contracts. This is in alignment with provisions offered by India to the UAE and more recently, the UK.

Under current rules, foreign firms are allowed to participate in procurement tenders worth over Rs 200 crore. In 2020, the government modified public procurement norms to give maximum preference to companies whose goods and services have 50% or more local content to promote 'Make in India'.

In the UK FTA too, British businesses are getting access to India's public procurement market, comprising approximately 40,000 tenders with a value of at least £38 billion or about Rs 4.3 lakh crore a year.

Further, GeM set a target of facilitating transactions worth Rs 7 lakh crore in FY26, up from Rs 5.4 lakh crore in FY25. "The next lever of growth comes when we start mass adoption among states, municipalities and panchayats. We're also working on value added services such as logistics and data analytics," Kumar said.