GCC Procurement in 2026: Rules, Local Content and What Saudi Arabia’s New Tenders Law Means for Foreign Suppliers

How GCC procurement is structured

Procurement in the Gulf runs on two tracks. Government entities buy through national tender laws and, in most countries, a central e-tendering portal. Large state-linked enterprises, especially in energy, run their own vendor programmes alongside those laws, usually with their own local-content targets.

Examples from the research behind this guide: QatarEnergy’s Tawteen programme scores third-party suppliers on in-country value, and Oman’s PDO has been reported to target 52% in-country value by 2030. Both figures come from secondary press coverage, so treat them as indicative.

The market these rules govern is large but uneven. The consultancy Strategy& put GCC mega-projects (each above USD 250 million) at more than USD 2 trillion through 2035, though it does not cite the underlying dataset. Actual awards swing from year to year: MEED reported GCC contract awards of USD 213.2 billion in 2025 against USD 313.9 billion in 2024, with Saudi awards falling from USD 164 billion to USD 84.5 billion. Zawya put Q1 2026 awards at USD 61.2 billion, down 9.7% year on year. Pipeline is not the same as awarded work, and a supplier needs to plan for both.

Saudi Arabia: Etimad and the new tenders law

Saudi government tenders run through Etimad, the unified e-tendering portal, which Saudi media report launching in 2018. In 2024 the portal carried roughly 85,900 tenders worth SAR 336.3 billion, according to figures reported by Argaam.

On 4 August 2026 the Council of Ministers approved a new Government Tenders and Procurement Law. It replaces the 2019 law (Royal Decree M/128). Press and law-firm coverage reports it was issued as Royal Decree M/76 and published in the Umm Al-Qura gazette on 4 September 2026, and it comes into force 120 days after publication, which points to around early January 2027. Confirm the exact date against the gazette before relying on it.

The headline changes, as summarised by Greenberg Traurig, are mostly about speed and delegation:

The same summary notes a single combined committee for bid opening and evaluation, and the ability to novate contracts between government entities. What is still missing matters just as much: implementing regulations, and two further frameworks, one on research and development and one on localisation and knowledge transfer, have not yet been published. Until they are, nobody outside the ministries knows exactly how local content will be scored under the new law.

Saudi local content: LCGPA, the Mandatory List and the 10% preference

Local content in Saudi Arabia is administered by the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA), established in December 2018. According to Clyde & Co, its toolkit includes a Mandatory List of national products, a price preference for local bidders (foreign bids are treated as 10% higher in evaluation), Local Content Plans with a baseline and target, and penalties that include debarment.

The scale is significant. Arab News reported in August 2026 that about 8,600 tenders with local-content mechanisms, worth roughly SAR 63 billion, were launched in Q2 2026, and that the Mandatory List had grown by 79 products to 1,752. If your product is on that list, pricing against local manufacturers is the first test, so check the list before you build a bid.

UAE: federal law, emirate rules and the ICV certificate

The UAE’s federal procurement framework is Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2023, and each emirate keeps its own rules, so a bid to a federal ministry and a bid to an emirate-level entity can follow different procedures.

Local content is handled through the National In-Country Value (ICV) Program run by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT). A supplier obtains an ICV certificate from an authorised certifying body, and the score is built from audited financials. MoIAT publishes the weights, updated in its September 2025 guidelines:

Because the largest component is local spend, a foreign supplier with no UAE manufacturing or local sub-supplier base starts from a low score. That is a planning issue, not just a paperwork one.

Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain: what is confirmed

Oman

In-country value (ICV) began in Oman’s energy sector and has since been extended further. Oman Observer, reporting on the Ministry of Energy and Minerals’ 2024 annual report, gave a 31.9% overall ICV rate for the energy sector, with SME spend of USD 1.8 billion (17.2% of energy-sector procurement). The ministry also introduced an ICV certificate system that rewards high local-content performers with bidding privileges.

Qatar

Tenders are governed by Law No. 24 of 2015, in force since June 2016, and the Ministry of Finance runs the Monaqasat e-procurement portal. A Qatar ICV (QICV) programme was reportedly launched by the Ministry of Finance in 2022. These details come from legal summaries and secondary sources rather than the primary text.

Kuwait and Bahrain

Kuwait’s public tenders law is Law No. 49 of 2016, amended by Law No. 74 of 2019, and the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) is the regulator. We did not confirm Kuwaiti local-content rules, and we did not research Bahrain’s tender framework for this guide. Check both with a local adviser or the tender documents.

GCC procurement compared, country by country

The table shows what could be confirmed. “Not confirmed here” means we did not verify it, not that it does not exist.

A practical checklist for foreign suppliers preparing to bid

Local-content scoring rewards preparation done months before a tender is issued. The steps below apply in most Gulf markets; the details differ by country and by tender.

For planning, see our guide to project sourcing and procurement in the GCC, and for vendor checks, the article on qualifying industrial service vendors and meeting local-content requirements. The mechanics of tenders, BoQs and supplier evaluation are covered in strategic sourcing and project execution.

Maple and Sand is a procurement intelligence platform connecting verified suppliers with institutional buyers across the GCC and North America. Its verification, risk scoring and pricing benchmarks include automated in-country value scoring, such as Saudi Nitaqat tiers, and its sector coverage spans construction, energy, government and infrastructure. Access is custom-quoted; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What does GCC procurement mean?

It means buying by government and enterprise buyers in the Gulf Cooperation Council states: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. It is unrelated to Global Capability Centers, which share the abbreviation.

Is there one procurement law for the whole GCC?

No. The sources reviewed describe separate national laws, such as Saudi Arabia's Government Tenders and Procurement Law, the UAE's Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2023, Qatar's Law No. 24 of 2015 and Kuwait's Law No. 49 of 2016. In the UAE, each emirate also keeps its own rules.

When does Saudi Arabia's new tenders law take effect?

It was approved on 4 August 2026 and comes into force 120 days after publication in the Official Gazette. Press coverage reports publication on 4 September 2026, which points to around early January 2027. Implementing regulations are still to come.

What is Etimad?

Etimad is Saudi Arabia's unified government e-tendering portal, reported to have launched in 2018. In 2024 it carried roughly 85,900 tenders worth SAR 336.3 billion, per Argaam.

How does Saudi Arabia's 10% local price preference work?

According to Clyde & Co, foreign bids are treated as 10% higher than their stated price when compared with local bids. Check the individual tender, since mechanisms and exemptions vary.

What is the UAE ICV certificate?

It is a score issued by an authorised certifying body under the National In-Country Value Program, built from audited financials. For goods manufacturers, the biggest weight (50) is on manufacturing cost; for service providers, it is on third-party spend.