The language gap: 4 in 10 public tenders are not published in English

Most bidders search for tenders in English, and most tender search tools assume they will. The data says that leaves a very large part of the world’s public procurement out of view.

The biggest markets mostly do not publish in English

These eight countries alone account for 171,201 notices, 39% of everything we collected from official sources. In our data, Germany publishes more tenders than any country except India. About one notice in ten is written in a non-Latin script (Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and others), which an English keyword search will never match at all.

And these contracts are not small

Where a value is declared, the median European tender is substantial:

In the UK, the median healthcare tender with a declared value was over £1 million.

What machine translation changes, and what it does not

FreeTender has machine-translated more than 111,000 notice titles and summaries into English so they can be searched and read alongside English notices. That is enough to find an opportunity and decide whether it is worth pursuing. It is not enough to bid: the original-language notice is always the legal version, and the bid itself usually has to be submitted in that language.

Before you chase a foreign-language tender

• Check eligibility first. Many EU contracts are open to firms from countries that are party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. India is an observer, not a party, so Indian firms should read the eligibility clause carefully or bid through an EU-based partner.
• Budget for translation of the full tender documents, not just the notice, and allow for it in the bid window. European windows are long (around 30 days) partly for this reason.
• Partner locally. A local partner brings the language, the registrations and the references buyers trust.
• Search in English, then read the original. Use translated titles to find opportunities, and the official source link on every FreeTender notice to read the binding text.

Related: how to bid on international tenders and joint ventures and consortium bidding.