ADB procurement changed in 2026: Merit Point Criteria, local participation and what contractors must change

The most important current fact about ADB procurement is the date: 1 January 2026. ADB's Procurement Directive for Borrowers became effective on that date and replaced the 2017 Procurement Regulations for the new framework, while the underlying 2017 Procurement Policy remains in place as amended. This means a contractor relying on a bid manual or internal checklist written for the 2017 Regulations may now be working from an obsolete process assumption. Legacy projects can still be governed by earlier documents, so the project concept-note date, financing documents, Procurement Plan and bidding dossier must be checked before deciding which rulebook applies.

The headline operational change is Merit Point Criteria. ADB now requires MPC for internationally advertised Open Competitive Bidding for goods, works and nonconsulting services, subject to defined exceptions and procurement design. MPC combines technical and financial scoring rather than treating technical compliance as only a pass/fail gate followed by lowest evaluated price. The technical weighting is linked to procurement risk and contract value, and ADB treats contracts above USD 10 million as high value for this purpose. For bidders, this changes the economics of proposal writing: methodology, sustainability, quality management, innovation, risk controls and delivery capability can directly affect award ranking, not merely demonstrate minimum compliance.

ADB's published MPC framework makes another point contractors should not underestimate: criteria are supposed to be tailored to the contract outcome, and higher-risk or higher-value contracts can carry materially different technical weightings. The bidder should therefore reverse-engineer the scorecard before writing the narrative. For every criterion, identify the evidence, the differentiator and the execution commitment being scored. Generic corporate text is weak because MPC asks the evaluator to distinguish between bids. A strong submission links each scored promise to resources, methods, programme logic, quality controls, sustainability measures and measurable deliverables that can later survive contract-management scrutiny.

Local participation is now another strategic bid variable. ADB states that, effective 1 January 2026, internationally advertised works contracts require at least half of total person-days to be delivered by local workers, and MPC can allocate technical points to local job creation and skills-development initiatives within the limits set by the framework. This should not be treated as a paragraph written at the end of the proposal. The labour histogram, subcontract strategy, training plan, supervisory structure, mobilisation schedule and cost model must all be consistent with the local-participation commitment. Over-promising to gain technical points can create a delivery problem if the priced resource model cannot actually support the promise.

ADB is also putting more emphasis on Early Market Engagement and strategic procurement planning. For complex infrastructure this is useful to both sides: the borrower can test whether the market can absorb the proposed risk, packaging and technical solution before tender; contractors can better understand the project's intended outcome and identify unrealistic interfaces before the competition becomes formal. Bidders should monitor procurement plans and early-market activity rather than waiting for the Invitation for Bids. By the time the final bidding document is issued, the procurement architecture, qualification logic and major risk allocation may already be largely settled.

For works contracts, ADB's relationship with FIDIC is explicit. ADB publishes standard bidding material for unit-price works based on the FIDIC Red Book 2017, including versions using Merit Point Criteria. This is a useful example of the two-layer system: ADB procurement rules determine how bidders are selected and evaluated, while the FIDIC-based Conditions of Contract govern construction administration after signature. The Particular Conditions remain critical. A bidder should therefore run two reviews in parallel: procurement compliance against the ADB bidding document and contract-risk review against the General and Particular Conditions. Passing one does not cure a problem in the other.

Gokbilge Engineering supports ADB-financed bids by turning the new evaluation logic into an executable proposal: criterion-by-criterion response matrices, technical methodologies, construction sequencing, resource and local-participation plans, risk registers, interface management, quality and commissioning strategies, and post-award programme controls. Under merit-based procurement, the best technical narrative is the one the delivery team can actually implement. Proposal commitments should therefore be written with the same discipline used for the baseline programme and execution plan, not by a detached marketing team in the final week of tender.

This article explains international-finance procurement from an engineering, tendering and project-delivery perspective. Procurement frameworks change, and legacy projects may remain subject to earlier rules. The financing agreement, procurement plan, tender dossier, bidding data, contract conditions, amendments and applicable law always govern the specific procurement. This is not legal advice.