When Thai Hospitals Sign Contracts: The Tender Calendar

The fiscal year and the budget

Thai government fiscal years run from 1 October to 30 September and are numbered in the Buddhist era: FY2024 is B.E. 2567 (October 2023 to September 2024), FY2025 is B.E. 2568 and FY2026 is B.E. 2569. Each year's spending is authorised by an annual Budget Act, which the Bureau of the Budget prepares and parliament passes, normally before the year begins. Agencies publish their annual procurement plans on e-GP, then draft specifications, set reference prices, invite bids and sign contracts once the money is in place.

Three years of signings

Across the 15,863 e-bidding contracts for medical and laboratory equipment in our eight categories, FY2024–FY2026, signings were far from even. Summed over the three years, each category's contracts clustered in three months:

May, June and September lead in five of the eight categories. Surgical and operating-room equipment peaks in May, June and July, IVD and clinical lab in January, March and May, and lab and scientific instruments in December, May and June.

The FY2024 exception

Most of that seasonality comes from one year. FY2024's Budget Act took effect only in April 2024, after the 2023 change of government, and equipment signings that year bunched from May: 77% of FY2024's 5,909 contracts were signed between May and September. In FY2025 and FY2026 the pattern reversed. The first half of the fiscal year, October to March, held 59% and 57% of contracts, and December was the busiest month in both years, with 670 and 554 contracts.

The three-year peaks in the table above are therefore largely FY2024's. Unless a budget is delayed again, FY2025 and FY2026 are the better guide to a typical year.

A typical year, category by category

In FY2025 and FY2026 together, six of the eight categories signed most often in the first four months of the fiscal year, October to January. October was the busiest month for diagnostic imaging and for patient monitoring and critical care, with rehab and hospital furniture busiest in October and November alike; December for surgical equipment and for lab and scientific instruments; January for IVD and clinical lab. Dental and sterilisation, the two smallest categories, were spread more evenly, with September their busiest month.

Laboratory and scientific instruments, bought mostly by university faculties, were the most front-loaded: 43% of their FY2025–FY2026 contracts were signed in November, December and January, a larger share than in any other category. For imaging, monitoring, surgical and rehab equipment, every month from February to May was quieter than any month from October to January.

Two caveats apply. The months are contract signing dates as recorded in e-GP, not invitation or delivery dates, so the work that wins a contract happens earlier. And FY2026 closed on 30 September 2026; contracts signed in its last weeks may still be added to the open data, which could lift its final months slightly.

Working backwards from the signing month

A contract signed in December or January is the end of a process that began months earlier, often in the previous fiscal year. Agencies can prepare a procurement before the year's budget is in force and sign once the funds are confirmed, which is consistent with the busy start to FY2025 and FY2026. Counting back from the month your buyers sign:

1. Product registration. Your Thai licence holder, usually your distributor, needs the Thai FDA authorisation for the device before it can be offered. Timelines vary by risk class and change over time, so check the Thai FDA's current service standards rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
2. Market sounding and quotations. While the specification is drafted, the agency collects supplier quotations to build the reference price. If your distributor is not asked, it can offer one.
3. Draft TOR and comment period. Agencies often publish the draft TOR and reference price for public comment before the invitation, usually for a short window, so someone needs to watch e-GP announcements from your target buyers.
4. Demonstrations. Clinical users who have seen a device are better placed to write a specification it can meet, and demonstration units need to be imported and registered in time.
5. Bid, award and contract. The distributor bids on e-GP; the winner signs and posts a performance guarantee, commonly 5% of the contract value. Delivery, installation and acceptance follow.

For buyers that sign between October and January, that puts registration, pricing and demonstrations in the previous fiscal year, while the agency is still drafting its plan and specification.

What happens to price in these tenders is covered in Reference prices in Thai tenders, explained with data. For one category in depth, see Thailand's public imaging market, FY2024–FY2026.