Key takeaways
- Panama's $606.5 million Centenario and Arraiján–La Chorrera highway PPP has its public bidding event on November 16, and Panama plans four more power tenders through 2028.
- Bank-financed tenders follow the lender's rules: the IDB's GN-2349 and GN-2350 policies, or CABEI's procurement policy, not just national law.
- The SIEPAC second-circuit tender let firms bid as joint ventures or consortia, a common setup on large regional projects.
- Line up local partners and Spanish-language outreach before the next notice posts, not after.
Central America has an unusually busy run of public tenders this fall. Some deadlines have already passed, but the projects show what's coming next: large infrastructure and energy buys, often financed by development banks, run in Spanish and built for consortia. US vendors who want a seat at the table need to be known before the next notice posts.
What's on the calendar
A sample of current and recent tenders, drawn from trade press and law-firm notices:
- Panama highway PPP. Panama's Ministry of Public Works (MOP) is tendering the rehabilitation and expansion of the Centenario and Arraiján–La Chorrera highways, about 42 km, as a public-private partnership with an estimated investment of $606.5 million. La Prensa reports that the scope includes work on 43 bridges and up to 48 months of construction before the concessionaire takes over operation and maintenance. The public bidding event is set for November 16.
- Tocumen International Airport. The Terminal 2 south pier, a $208.75 million design, construction and equipment contract with a 30-month schedule, took bids on November 6. A separate $22 million Terminal 1 modernization covers fire safety, smoke extraction and a full air-conditioning renewal.
- SIEPAC second circuit. Empresa Propietaria de la Red (EPR) tendered construction of the regional transmission line's second circuit, covering links between Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The project is partly financed by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). Bids closed September 30.
- Guatemala power supply. Open tender LA-01-2026 seeks about 300 MW of short-term supply, with deliveries expected between November 2026 and May 2027, under bidding rules authorized by the regulator, CNEE.
- More energy tenders ahead. Panama's energy secretariat has a roadmap of four new power tenders for 2026–2028, and a battery storage tender is in design. Honduras has proposed a 1,500 MW tender for renewable, thermal and storage capacity, with timing tied to its electricity reform.
Elsewhere in the region, El Salvador's airport authority, CEPA, tendered a $30.2 million parking structure financed by an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan.
Read the lender's rules, not just the national law
When a development bank finances a project, its procurement rules usually govern the tender. That changes what a bidder needs to know.
- IDB-financed projects follow the IDB's procurement policies: GN-2349 for goods, works and non-consulting services, and GN-2350 for selecting consultants. Each operation uses the version in effect when its loan was approved, so check which one the bid documents cite.
- CABEI-financed projects follow CABEI's procurement policy. The SIEPAC tender ran as an open competitive process with an international market approach under CABEI's Procurement Policy for Bank-Financed Operations. Bids went in only through EPR's FILEON system as separate technical and financial PDFs, with a bid-securing declaration, and late bids were not accepted.
- Nationally funded tenders run under national law. Panama's PPPs fall under Law No. 93 of 2019, and the highway bid specifications were posted on PanamaCompra, the national procurement portal.
CABEI's procurement site notes that questions about a specific operation go to that operation's executing agency, not the bank. That's a useful pointer for outreach: the executing agency is where the real conversations happen. Our Latin America government procurement guide covers the national systems in more detail.
Plan for consortia and local partners
Large regional tenders are built for teams. The SIEPAC documents let companies bid individually or as a joint venture, consortium or association (APCA, by its Spanish acronym). A 42 km highway PPP with 43 bridges and a long operating term is rarely a solo bid either.
For a US vendor, the first question is often not "how do we bid?" but "who are we bidding with?" A few practical steps:
- Map the likely primes. Find the contractors and integrators that attend pre-bid meetings or have won similar work, and decide where your product or service fits in their bid.
- Find local partners early. A local firm brings registration, permits and working relationships with the executing agency. Those take months to build, not weeks.
- Check eligibility and requirements first. Read the eligibility, guarantee and submission clauses in each set of bid documents before you commit time to a pursuit.
Do the outreach in Spanish, and do it early
Public procurement in Panama, Guatemala and their neighbors runs in Spanish, and so do most conversations with the agencies and utilities behind these tenders, from Panama's ETESA to Honduras's ENEE. A vendor that writes and calls in Spanish shows it's ready to support the work locally.
Timing matters as much as language. By the time a notice is published, the scope is largely set. The better window is before that, while agencies are holding pre-bid meetings and drafting documents. Panama's MOP, for example, met with 34 contractors in August, three months before its public event.
A respectful first note to an executing agency or a prospective partner might read: "Vimos que están preparando la licitación de [proyecto]. Trabajamos en proyectos de [tipo] y nos gustaría conocer sus prioridades técnicas. Si no es el momento adecuado, lo entendemos." (We saw you're preparing the [project] tender. We work on [type] projects and would like to understand your technical priorities. If the timing isn't right, we understand.) It offers something useful and leaves the buyer room to say no.
Pre-bid meetings, loan approvals and published procurement plans are all early signals worth tracking. Our guide to government buying signals explains how to watch for them, and our list of Latin America public-sector events shows where to meet buyers in person.
How KSG helps
Kensington Sales Group's bilingual sales development team runs Spanish-language outreach to agencies, utilities and potential partners across Central and South America. Paired with our market intelligence work, our SDRs track upcoming tenders and open low-pressure conversations with the people shaping the next bid, so your team is known before the notice posts.
Sources: News in America, Panama leads infrastructure tenders across Central America and the Caribbean (October 8, 2026); La Prensa, Vía Centenario y Arraiján-La Chorrera: así será la transformación de $606.5 millones (July 16, 2026); GarciaBodan, SIEPAC second circuit tender notice (August 28, 2026); Energía Estratégica, regional tender map (July 31, 2026); IDB, Project procurement policies; CABEI, Procurement.