In general, the procurement of technology follows the standard of the Procurement Laws and practices.

However, some considerations should be taken into account: (i) every year, the Expenditure Budget of the Federation is issued and describes the total amount of funds allocated to science and technology programs in accordance with the Law of Science and Technology; (ii) every public entity issue its own resolution of austerity and budgetary discipline for the fiscal year (p.e. 2017) which determine that technology acquisitions, especially computer and communications equipment, should follow a technology update program and are ordinarily subject to budget caps as well as their procurement may only be appropriate whenever it is justified in terms of cost-benefit with their compatibility and standardization criteria; and (iii) Mexico must comply with the Resolution 1540 of the Security Council of the United Nations, for the procurement of technology and software that can be used for the development or use of weapons of mass destruction (including, for example, certain cryptographic technologies).

No, as already mentioned, the public procurement of the aerospace and defense sector is regulated by the Procurement Laws, mainly by the Acquisitions Law and the Works Law.

Additionally, under the Acquisitions Law and the Works Law, these acquisitions, leases and services, or works, may be procured without a public bidding procedure because they relate to military or army purposes, and because public procurement may compromise national security or public safety.

The public procurement of the health care sector is also regulated by the Public Procurement Laws, basically by the Acquisitions and the Works Law, and now by the PPP Law, since Mexican health institutions such as IMSS and ISSSTE are now launching hospitals and services under a PPP modality. These projects are part of a huge PPP program that the federal government has recently launched to build and operate various hospitals in Mexico.

As previously mentioned, on December 2013, the Mexican congress enacted the Constitutional energy reform which in turn resulted in the enactment and amendment of several secondary laws and regulations. All this resulted in a huge transformation of the energy sector in Mexico. In sum, this new legal framework allows private entities the opportunity to participate in a more broadly manner in activities that were previously restricted or reserved exclusively for the Mexican government acting through PEMEX or the CFE. Therefore, there is a whole new framework that exclusively applies to the Oil & Gas and Power sectors.

Also, the Telecommunications sector is regulated under the Telecommunication and Broadcasting Federal Law which regulates the procurement of telecommunications and broadcasting concessions. The Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), with its own criteria, may call tender processes and shall allocate the assignment of frequency bands of the radio electric spectrum in telecommunications and broadcasting sector, as well as the orbital resources with their frequency bands.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the biggest telecommunications project in Mexico’s history, known as “Red Compartida”, was just awarded under the PPP Law.